NHMRC Scholarships
NHMRC Scholarship holders must now make their research publications open access. This applies to scholarships awarded on or after 20 September 2022. Scholarships awarded before this date are exempt until 1 January 2024.
Summary: 2022 NHMRC Open Access Policy for publications
- The research output must be open access immediately upon publication (no embargo is permitted).
- Covers peer-reviewed journal articles and peer-reviewed conference papers supported in whole or in part by the NHMRC.
- A Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence is required (exceptions apply, such as research about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities)
- The open access version must be either the final published version (known as a Version of Record) or the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM).
- A metadata record of the research output must be submitted to our institutional repository, Sydney eScholarship within 3 months of publication. This requirement applies regardless of whether the research output itself can be made openly accessible. Follow the submission guidelines on the Sydney eScholarship support page to learn how to submit a metadata record.
Pathways to compliance (2022 NHMRC policy)
Pathway One: Open Access Publishing (Version of Record Open Access).
There are two options for this pathway:
- Publish in an open access journal. This may require the payment of an Article Processing Charge (APC).
- Publish in a journal with which we have an open access publishing agreement. For example, publish in a journal that is covered by one of our Read and Publish agreements.
Pathway Two: Repository open access
All of these steps must be completed for this pathway:
- The version of your submission uploaded to the repository must include the NHMRC rights retention statement in the PDF.
- The version that is in the Sydney eScholarship repository must be the either the Author Accepted Manuscript or the Version of Record.
- It must be made available immediately, without embargo, and have a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence.
NHMRC Author Rights Retention statement
Under the NHMRC Open Access (2022) policy the following rights retention statement must be included when submitting a manuscript to a publisher:
“This research was funded in whole or part by the National Health and Medical Research Council [Grant number]. For the purposes of open access, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission.” (p.12, NHMRC Open Access (2022) policy)
Key points for Author Rights Retention:
- A rights retention statement allows authors to assert copyright and sharing rights over their peer-reviewed and revised Author Accepted Manuscripts (AAMs).
- Rights retention statements can be included in the submitted manuscript's "Acknowledgements" section and in the submission's accompanying cover letter or note.
- If a publisher will not accept author rights retention for an article that will be published behind a paywall, other publishing options should be explored.
More details on rights retention can be found in the 2022 NHMRC Open Access Policy and its accompanying guidance on Open access and retention of ownership rights (2022).