National Scholarly Communications Forum

The National Scholarly Communications Forum (NSCF) is a body sponsored by Australia's four Learned Academies, with a membership from a wide range of organisations representing academics, independent researchers, writers, librarians, publishers, and specialists in copyright and in digital technologies. The Forum exchanges information about scholarly communication and research practices in Australia.

The aim of the Forum is to disseminate information changes to the context and structures of scholarly communication in Australia, and to make recommendations on what a broad spectrum of participants see as the best developmental policies. To this end, it organises a series of events and conferences where relevant issues are debated, future strategies are proposed and outcomes are recorded through a variety of forms of publications.

The NSCF, founded in 1994, had its origins as a forum held in 1993 - Changes in Scholarly Communication Patters. Australia and the Electronic Library - edited by John Mulvaney and Colin Steele, and published by the Academy as an occasional paper in 1993.

The latest Forum was held at the Australian National University on 3 May 2013.

Open Access Research Issues in the Humanities and Social Sciences

Themes of the Forum:

• To gain a better understanding of the current practices and challenges with regard to Open Access in the Humanities and the Social Sciences in Australia;
• To provide an overview of existing Open Access activities in the Humanities and the Social Sciences globally and envisaged developments;
• To review national and institutional funders’ policies and how these are implemented and supported;
• To reflect on suitable business models for sustainable Open Access infrastructures that take into account the specificities of the Humanities and the Social Sciences in relation to serials, monographs and data.     

Organisations represented included the Australian Research Council, Universities Australia, Council of Australian University Librarians, Australasian Council of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

Links to available presentations are included in the programme below.
* Presentations will be uploaded as they are received.

Please direct queries regarding the NSCF and/or the Forum via email to Colin Steele, Emeritus Fellow, Australian National University.

Programme

9.30: Welcome

• Dr Christina Parolin, Executive Director, Australian Academy of the Humanities

9.35-10.10: Open Access in the Humanities and Social Sciences: Global and Australian Developments (Chair - Christina Parolin)

• Colin Steele FAHA, Emeritus Fellow, Australian National University
• Dr Danny Kingsley, Executive Officer, Australian Open Access Support Group

10.10-10.35: The Academic Research Council and Open Access (Chair - Joy Damousi)

• Professor Aidan Byrne, CEO, Australian Research Council

10.35-11.00: Universities Australia: A Smarter Australia and Open Access (Chair - Joy Damousi)

• Belinda Robinson, CEO, Universities Australia

11.00-11.30: Morning Tea

11.30-12 00: Australian Government and Open Access (Chair - Iain McCalman)

• Professor John McMillain AO, Australian Government Information Commissioner
• Professor Gerard Goggin, Professor and Chair, Department of Media and Communications, The University of Sydney

12.00-12.45: Open Access Content: Ownership, Dissemination and Impact (Chair - Colin Steele)

• Associate Professor Andrew Rimmer, ARC Future Fellow, College of Law, The Australian National University
• Dr John Lamp, School of Information Systems, Deakin University
• Professor Joy Damousi FAHA FASSA, Professor of History, University of Melbourne

12.45-1.45: Lunch

1.45-2.00: The Economics of Open Access (video presentation)
(Chair - Colin Steele)

• Professor John Houghton , Centre for Strategic and Economic Studies, Victoria University

2.00 – 2.45: Open Access Issues for Australian Serial Publications - Editors and Publishers (Chair - Roxanne Missingham)

• Professor Keith Dowding, Professor of Political Science, the Australian National University
• Associate Professor Christina Twomey, ARC Future Fellow, Monash University
• James Mercer, Licensing Manager Oceania, Springer

2.45-3.20: Open Scholarship, Open Access Monographs

• Cathrine Harboe-Ree, President, Council of Australian Librarians
• Emeritus Professor James Fox FASSA, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, the Australian National University

3.20-3.55: Forum Open Discussion

• Moderator: Dr Gavin Moodie, Principal Policy Advisor, RMIT

3.55-4.00: Close

• Emeritus Professor James Fox FASSA