Australia has two research councils (funders). One, the National Health & Medical Research Council, has already adopted an open access mandate, effective from 1 July 2012. The other, the Australian Research Council, has sent a proposed mandate to universities for consultation, to come into effect on 1 January 2013. The ARC funds many more grants than the NH&MRC over a wider range of disciplines. See http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/grants/policy/dissemination-research-findings for what the ARC policy will probably look like.
Both mandates are effectively the same. All publications associated with a grant have to be made open access in an institutional repository (ie Green), not later than twelve months after publication. The Accepted Manuscript is fine, or the Version of Record. Universities have to police the grant conditions and the Principal Investigator has to comply. There is an exception are for Gold publications, in which case only a metadata deposit and link is necessary. There are also transitional arrangements. This is a big step forward. Everyone on GOAL should join with us Australians in celebrating, even if we would prefer instant access or a shorter embargo. We are finally getting to free access by all readers. Professor Arthur Sale University of Tasmania, Australia
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