Open Access Policy

1. Purpose

1.1 The Open Access Policy (the policy) outlines the pathways to disseminating UTS research and educational outputs to a global audience, removing financial and legal barriers to access and reuse.

1.2 The policy is supported by the Research Open Access Procedure and the Teaching and Learning Open Access Procedure.

2. Scope

2.1 This policy applies to:

all staff, students and affiliates (collectively authors)
course and educational materials, and
research outputs.

2.2 This policy does not apply to:

any output completed before the adoption of open access policies at UTS
course and educational or research material subject to intellectual property or copyright protection and commercialisation (refer Intellectual Property Policy)
course and educational or research material subject to commercialisation agreements (refer Commercial Activities Policy)
non-digital outputs.

3. Principles

3.1 As a public purpose institution, UTS is committed to delivering public good and broad societal benefit. To meet this commitment, the university supports the principles of open access to deliver its high-quality research and education to achieve community and global impact.

3.2 UTS recognises that a variety of mechanisms are employed to generate impactful scholarship, research and research translation, including but not limited to publishing, commercialisation and intellectual property protection. Where possible, and where it achieves the greatest impact, UTS:

aims to share its research and scholarship as widely as possible, enabling open, equitable, worldwide access
encourages authors to provide open access to their research data in line with the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research (the Australian Code), while acknowledging their right to first use, and
encourages authors to publish course and educational material as open educational resources.

3.3 UTS provides open publishing platforms and repositories to facilitate open access.

3.4 UTS promotes open education resources, tools and practices that are free of legal, financial and technical barriers. These can be fully used, shared and adapted in the digital environment.

3.5 The Intellectual Property Policy contains provisions on the ownership of intellectual property created by staff, which supports the principles of open access.

3.6 UTS subscribes to the FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship, which provide guidance on increasing the reuse of research data, and the CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance. Refer also Research Data Management Procedure.

3.7 UTS recognises that, in addition to the public benefits of open access, this policy:

widens engagement with scholarship
broadens the impact of research outputs and course and educational materials
meets the needs of funding bodies (for example, the Australian Research Council (ARC) and the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC))
simplifies the authors’ retention of distribution rights
aids preservation.

4. Policy statements

Course and educational materials

4.1 Authors must ensure that they have the necessary rights when publishing open educational resources. Where possible, resources should be published under an open licence (preferably a Creative Commons CC BY Licence) and attribute UTS accordingly. Refer also Teaching and Learning Open Access Procedure.

4.2 When publishing course and educational materials, UTS promotes publication via an appropriate discipline repository or website to ensure discovery and use.

Research outputs

4.3 UTS is committed to capturing a comprehensive record of UTS-created research outputs (both traditional and non-traditional). Where possible, research outputs are made openly available via UTS repositories and platforms.

4.4 A record of specified research outputs (traditional and non-traditional) must be deposited via author submission and stored in the appropriate UTS repository or system (refer Research Open Access Procedure and Research Data Management Procedure).

4.5 Theses must be deposited to the institutional repository (OPUS) in line with section 11, Student Rules. Refer also Research Open Access Procedure.

4.6 Outputs will not be altered except as permitted or required under law to:

reproduce, electronically communicate and distribute the open access copy, including any open access copies of the published version of the specified work online
make copies of the work for the purposes of security, backup and preservation
ensure copyright compliance is achieved.

Access and rights

4.7 Authors are encouraged to enact a rights retention clause when submitting research outputs for publication to ensure they retain full reuse rights over their research (refer Plan S: Rights Retention Strategy).

4.8 Levels of access for traditional research outputs are provided as follows.

Accepted manuscripts are open access under licence as outlined in the Intellectual Property Policy.
Published versions are open access with agreement from the publisher.

4.9 Authors undertaking research at UTS must follow the requirements of the Research Data Management Procedure, which provides guidance on both access and rights for research data in line with the Australian Code.

Funding bodies and external obligations

4.10 Authors must comply with any open access stipulations in research contracts from funding bodies or clients (refer Research Policy). Issues of confidentiality are managed in line with the Intellectual Property Policy.

4.11 When publishing course and educational materials under research contracts, or other external funding agreements, these should be published as per the requirements outlined in the agreement and the Intellectual Property Policy.

Indigenous Knowledges

4.12 All open access is limited by the rights of Indigenous Peoples to control their Indigenous Knowledges and Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP).

4.13 All proposed engagement with and use of ICIP must be undertaken in line with the Indigenous Policy, alongside contemporary standards, principles and national and international guidance, such as the CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance and the AIATSIS Code of Ethics for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research.

4.14 Research outputs and course and educational materials that use ICIP must be managed in line with the Indigenous Policy, alongside contemporary standards, principles and national and international guidance, such as the CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance and the AIATSIS Code of Ethics for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research.

Open access and intellectual property

4.15 The Intellectual Property Policy articulates UTS’s rights to a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to use (and therefore reproduce and distribute) research outputs through an institutional repository.

4.16 Limitations for different categories of UTS-generated intellectual property are specified in the Intellectual Property Policy, exempting certain works and outputs from the requirements of this policy.

Open access and copyright

4.17 Copyright remains with the author and/or, where stipulated in a publisher agreement, the publisher. Depositing outputs in a repository does not transfer copyright to the repository.

4.18 It is recommended that authors, in signing a publisher agreement:

retain copyright in their works where possible, or
publish under an open licence (preferably a Creative Commons CC BY Licence) and ensure they retain the right to use and archive in an institutional repository without embargo.

Exceptions

4.19 Exceptions to this policy may be requested in writing to the University Librarian (refer UTS Library: Contact us) for endorsement where appropriate justification can be made. The University Librarian will forward requests, along with their recommendation for approval (or otherwise), to the:

Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research) for research matters
Deputy Vice Chancellor (Education and Students) for teaching and learning and student matters, and
Dean, Graduate Research School for graduate research matters.

Policy breaches

4.20 Non-compliance with this policy or its procedures will be managed in line with the Code of Conduct, the Graduate Research and Supervision Policy, section 11, Student Rules or the guidelines for research integrity breaches (available at Research Integrity (SharePoint)), depending on the nature and circumstances of the breach.

5. Roles and responsibilities

5.1 Policy owner: The Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) and the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education and Students) are responsible for policy enforcement and compliance, ensuring that its principles and statements are observed.

The Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) is also responsible for the approval of the Research Open Access Procedure.

The Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education and Students) is also responsible for the approval of the Teaching and Learning Open Access Procedure.

5.2 Policy contact: The University Librarian is responsible for the day-to-day implementation of this policy and acts as a primary point of contact for advice on fulfilling its provisions.

5.3 Implementation and governance roles: Staff, students and affiliates (collectively authors) are responsible for applying the principles and statements of this policy to research outputs and course and educational materials.

The UTS Library is responsible for providing guidance and advice on UTS’s open access requirements.

The Education Portfolio provides support with authoring, publication and promotion of open access educational resources.

The Office of the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous Leadership and Engagement) can provide general advice and/or referral to sources of information on Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) as required.

The Data Governance Policy outlines responsibilities for information system stewardship.

6. Definitions

The following definitions apply for this policy. These are in addition to the definitions outlined in Schedule 1, Student Rules. Definitions in the singular also include the plural meaning of the word.

Accepted manuscript means the final peer reviewed and corrected version of an article or research paper or work. The text is the same as the published version but without the formatting.

Client is defined in the Research Policy.

Copyright means all rights conferred by the Copyright Act 1968 (Cwlth) as amended or substituted in relation to, without limitation, literary works, dramatic works, musical works, artistic works, films, sound recordings, broadcasts, published editions and certain types of performances.

Course and educational material is defined in the Intellectual Property Policy.

Creative commons framework means the licences under the non-profit organisation that facilitates the sharing of knowledge and creativity. These licences normally allow individuals to use, distribute and adapt the work of others while crediting the original creation/creator. These are recommended to enhance collaboration for maximum dissemination and use of licensed materials and are in line with the UK Plan S requirements.

Data record is defined in the Research Data Management Procedure.

Digital repository refers to a scholarly digital storage system for the publication of research outputs and scholarly works (for example OPUS).

Discipline repository is defined in the Teaching and Learning Open Access Procedure.

Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property is defined in the Intellectual Property Policy.

Indigenous Knowledges is defined in the Intellectual Property Policy.

Intellectual property is defined in the Intellectual Property Policy.

Open access means free and unrestricted (electronic) access to UTS conducted research outputs and other scholarly works.

Open educational resources (also OERs) mean free, openly licensed online teaching and learning materials. These materials are either in the public domain or have been offered under Creative Commons licences that allow for their wider use.

Published version (also version of record) means the publisher’s PDF of an article or research paper or work, which has been copy-edited and formatted for publication.

Record of research output means the documentation and metadata associated with a research output deposited to a repository or database. Examples of research output records include data records, accepted manuscripts and versions of records (final published version of a manuscript).

Research contract is defined in the Research Policy.

Research data is defined in the Research Policy.

Research output is defined in the Research Policy.

Approval information

Policy contact	University Librarian
Approval authority	Academic Board
Review date	2029
File number	UR21/1155
Superseded documents	Open Access Policy (UR12/1272)

Version history

Version	Approved by	Approval date	Effective date	Sections modified
1.0	Academic Board (AB/21-4/67)	29/09/2021	21/10/2021	New policy.
1.1	Deputy Director, Corporate Governance (Delegation 3.14.2)	13/12/2023	27/02/2024	Minor amendments to refer to the new Teaching and Learning Open Access Procedure and the Research Open Access Procedure.
2.0	Academic Board (AB/24-5/88)	13/11/2024	03/12/2024	Full review.