Open Access

The NHMRC and ARC have both mandated that research resulting from NHMRC or ARC funding is to be made available on Open Access via the institutional repository, for SCU that is Cross Connect.

The mandates are based on the premise that:

The Australian Government makes a major investment in research to support its essential role in improving the wellbeing of our society. To maximise the benefits from research, publications resulting from research activities must be disseminated as broadly as possible to allow access by other researchers and the wider community.

ARC Open Access Policy 2026.01

From 1 July 2026, the ARC has a new Open Access Policy. This policy applies to all ARC grant schemes that open for application on or after that date. The previous policy applies to all earlier grant schemes (see Other versions for earlier versions of this policy). 

What is covered under this policy?

This policy relates to research outputs arising from ARC funded research including:

• post-print or author-accepted manuscript
• publisher version
• other research outputs, e.g. creative works, if they have undergone external review of an equivalent academic standard.

This policy does not include:

• research data (see Research Data Management)
• pre-prints.

Key requirements for output types

Journal articles and peer-reviewed conference papers:

• must be made immediately open access upon publication with no embargo period
• must be licenced with a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence, unless there are Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property considerations (see Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property Rights).

Monographs, edited volumes, book chapters, and research reports:

• must be made open access within 12 months of publication
• it is recommended a CC licence is applied, with a strong preference for CC BY.

Creative works

• open access is strongly encouraged.

Pathways to open access

Repository or green open access

The author accepted manuscript (AAM) can be made available in an institutional repository (i.e. Cross Connect), with CC BY licence. This can be achieved by including the following statement with the manuscript upon submission: "This research was funded in whole or part by The Australian Research Council [grant identification number and DOI]. For the purposes of compliance with the funder's open access policy, the author has applied a CC BY licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission".

Note: Some publishers require the AAM to be subject to an embargo period, which may impact researchers' ability to meet the grant requirements. 

Publisher open access (includes gold, diamond and hybrid open access)

The required creative commons licence must be applied to the research output (e.g. CC BY for journal articles). It is important to check the licencing and open access options provided by a publisher to ensure it meets the ARC's requirements. 

Publisher open access can be facilitated through an open access agreement, provided all conditions of the grant are met. 

Key policy requirements regarding metadata and persistent identifiers (PIDs)

• All research outputs, including creative works, must have a DOI and be listed in the Final Report.
• The metadata for all research outputs must be openly accessible in an institutional repository (i.e. Cross Connect) no later than three months from the date of publication of the research outputs.
• The ARC will mint a DOI for all grants awarded.

The Cross Connect team can assist with minting DOIs and adding metadata for research outputs to Cross Connect. 

Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property Rights

The new Open Access policy includes provisions to protect Indigenous and Cultural and Intellectual Property rights. See section 4.5.

ARC Open Access Policy Version 2021.1

Any Research Output Published in respect of ARC Funded Research must be made Openly Accessible within a twelve (12) month period from the Publication Date and must include acknowledgement of ARC funding and the ARC Project ID.

• Applies to outputs from funding granted after 1 January 2013
• Applies to books, book chapters and journal articles.

On 2 February 2026 the NHMRC and the MRFF launched their joint Open Science Policy. 

Key requirements for outputs

Under the policy, at least one version of any research paper created as a result of NHMRC and/or MRFF funding must be:

• made immediately open access
• published with a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence.

Eligible outputs include

• Preprint
• Author accepted manuscript
• Version of record.

Pathways to open access

Publisher based open access

The version of record is made immediately open access with a CC BY licence. This can be facilitated by the library's open access agreements. 

Note: To meet the intent of the policy hybrid journals are considered compliant if they are part of an open access agreement that enable the payment of an APC to make the individual article open access. 

Repository based open access (green open access)

The author accepted manuscript (AAM) is:

• deposited in an open online repository, i.e. Cross Connect. 
• made immediately open access with a CC BY licence.

The AAM metadata should link to the metadata for the version of record (i.e. the published version).

Authors can retain their right to archive an AAM in Cross Connect when submitting their manuscript to a publisher by including the following statement:

"This research was funded in whole or part by: The National Health and Medical Research Council [grant number(s)]/The Medical Research Future Fund [grant number(s)]/The Medical Research Future Fund [grant number(s)] and National Health and Medical Research Councill [grant number(s)]. For the purposes of open access, the author has applied a CC BY licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission". 

Note: Some publishers require AAMs to be subject to an embargo period, which may not meet the requirements of the grant.

Preprints

A preprint can be made immediately open access with a CC BY licence in a recognised publicly accessible archive or preprint server that links to the published version of record. Authors should be aware that professional scholarly communications sites, file sharing sites, social networking platforms, and pirate sites are not considered compliant under this policy.

The NHMRC and MRFF encourage the posting of preprints of all manuscripts regardless of whether they are choosing to comply with the policy through this route. 

Note: Some publishers place limitations on whether they will accept manuscripts that have already been published as a preprint. 

Key policy requirements for metadata, data and persistent identifiers (PIDs)

• All research outputs created as part of the grant must have an appropriate persistent identified (e.g. DOI) and include the unique NHMRC Grant Identification Number and the Research Organisation Registry Identifier for NHMRC. 
• All researchers who receive funding should have an ORCID.
• Metadata for the research papers must be made open access in an institutional repository as soon as possible, but no later than three months after first online publication.
• Data and associated metadata should adhere to CARE and FAIR principles. 

Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property Rights

Research outputs involving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities should recognise and protect Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property rights and consider the ownership, management, use of, access to, and distribution of research results and outputs (see section 4 of the Policy). A more restrictive Creative Commons licence may be considered for these research outputs.

Previous policies

From 1 July 2012 NHMRC mandated:

...any publications arising from an NHMRC supported research project must be deposited into an open access institutional repository within a twelve month period from the date of publication.

• Applies retrospectively
• Publication must include the Grant ID number
• Relates to anything published after 1 July 2012 as a result of an NHMRC grant no matter how old the grant
• Applies to peer-reviewed journal articles only

Read the NHMRC Open Access policy.

APCs are charged by Open Access publishers to cover the costs of publishing instead of raising revenue from subscriptions

The APC will vary usually depending on the impact factor of the journal.

In some cases, this APC may be covered by the Library's Open Access agreements.

The Accepted Manuscript, or post-print, is the final version of your manuscript before publisher markup and after any reviewers comments have been addressed. It is word-for-word identical to the published version.

Some commercial publishers apply an embargo to the Accepted Manuscript.

This will usually be outlined in your author agreement. The Accepted Manuscript can be added to Cross Connect and your SCU Profile where the system will apply an embargo period as per the publisher's requirement.

We are happy to help you interpret your publisher agreement. Email crossconnect@scu.edu.au if you have an enquiry.

To comply with the ARC and NHMRC mandates the Accepted Manuscript must be submitted to Cross Connect and made available on Open Access within 12 months of publishing. Both mandates state that if you are unable to supply an Open Access version of your paper then the metadata i.e. the citation details, must at least must be included in the Institutional Repository.

Different publishers apply different copyright restrictions on their Accepted Manuscripts, Library Systems staff will check the copyright for you and make your Accepted Manuscript available wherever possible.

The Post Print, or Accepted Manuscript, is the final version of your manuscript before publisher markup and after any changes by reviewers. Open policy finder (formerly Sherpa Romeo) provide a list of Publishers allowing the deposition of their published version/PDF in Institutional Repositories.

You can provide Library Systems staff with the Accepted Manuscript by:

• Attach it to your Research Publications submission to DVCR
• Attach it to the publication on your SCU Profile
• Emailing crossconnect@scu.edu.au

You can ensure your rights to post an Accepted Manuscript, if not already permitted, by requesting an addendum to your Author/Publisher agreement. The NHMRC has recommended the following wording to be added to the contract you sign with your publisher;

The Author has the right to archive their version of the article (Word document) after peer-review, with revisions having been made, on their institutional website and their personal website, provided in all cases a link to the journal article on the Publisher web-site is included.

Open resources SCU Library guide - Links and information about open access and open educational resources

DOAJ - Directory of Open Access Journals

DOAB - Directory of Open Access Books

Open policy finder (formerly SHERPA/RoMEO) - for publisher copyright policies and self archiving rules, search by Journal Title