When creating open content such as open textbooks or open courseware, you may use:
- content with open licensing, such as Creative Commons or Public Domain
- content in which copyright has expired
- external links to non-infringing content
- content that you have written permission to use.
You may wish to use Creative Commons to share your work. Where UniSQ owns the copyright in the work, content will need to be licensed by the UniSQ Legal Office. You will then be able to share your open access resource on many different open access sharing platforms.
When licensing your work under Creative Commons, you need to make sure the licence you choose is compatible with the licences of all the resources you have used. For example, if aspects of your work contain the “Share Alike” element, the final work must be distributed under a “Share Alike” licence. The Creative Commons Compatibility Wizard and the Open Education Licensing Toolkit can help you choose an appropriate licence.
Open Access publishing
Open Access ensures that your work can be more easily found, downloaded and shared, increasing citation rates. Publishing in Open Access journals ensures optimal return on public investment.
Open Access approaches
Green Open Access
Green Open Access publishing allows authors to archive a version of their work in an institutional repository (RISE Research Repository) or other repositories (such as ResearchGate or PubMed Central).
Gold Open Access
Researchers may choose to publish in an Open Access journal, where the journal provides free online access to the content of the journal. Gold Open Access journals have a processing charge. It may be possible to include this processing charge in grant applications, should you decide to publish open access at the time of application.
Open Access and monographs
The AOASG website provides a useful overview of Open Access options for publishing monographs.
Open Access publishers often allow the distribution of versions of your publication into an institutional repository like RISE Research Repository. It is important to note which version you are able to share:
- Pre-print (submitted version) – this is the version the author sends to the publisher for review.
- Post-print (accepted version) - this version is still in manuscript form but includes corrections associated with the peer review process. This is the version that is most commonly included in institutional repositories.
- Published version - this includes the publishers format (including logos, hyperlinked references, pagination and other formatting consistent with journal publications). Few publishers allow this version to be shared in repositories, even after an embargo period.
Many publishers impose an embargo period whereby work may be stored in a repository but not made available through Open Access. Some funding bodies, such as the Australian Research Council and the National Health and Medical Research Council, mandate that research should be made available via open access as soon as possible after the date of publication.