Funder Open Research Policies

1. Make research outputs openly accessible (mandatory)

All published research outputs within scope must be made openly accessible, according to the following timeframes:

Journal articles and peer-reviewed conference papers

• Must be open access immediately on publication
• Must be licensed with Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY), unless exceptions apply

See guides and supports for this at About Open Access

Monographs, edited volumes, book chapters, and research reports

• Must be made openly accessible as soon as possible and within 12 months of publication
• The ARC recommends applying a Creative Commons licence, with a strong preference for CC BY

Creative works

• Strongly encouraged to be made openly accessible wherever possible

2. Use an approved route to open access (mandatory)

Researchers may comply with the policy using one of two routes:

Route 1: Publisher open access (Version of Record)

• The publisher's version is made immediately open access
• Licensed under CC BY
• May involve an Article Processing Charge (APC), paid by the author, institution, or via a read-and-publish agreement

Route 2: Repository open access (Author Accepted Manuscript)

• The Author Accepted Manuscript is deposited in an open institutional repository
• Must be made immediately open access with a CC BY licence
• Requires rights retention, either via an institutional policy or by using ARC-approved rights-retention wording at submission

See guides and supports for Rights Retention at About Open Access

3. Deposit open metadata (mandatory)

For all ARC-funded research outputs (including those that cannot be openly accessible):

• Metadata must be made openly available in an institutional repository
• This must occur within 3 months of publication
• Metadata must include, at a minimum:
  • Author(s) and ORCID iDs
  • Title and output type
  • Publisher
  • Research output DOI
  • ARC grant DOI
  • ARC Research Organisation Registry (ROR) ID: https://ror.org/05mmh0f86
  • Licence and access status
  • Date of publication
  • A rich descriptive abstract or summary

4. Acknowledge ARC funding correctly (mandatory)

All ARC-funded research outputs must:

• Clearly acknowledge the Australian Research Council
• Include:
  • Grant identification number(s)
  • Grant DOI(s)
  • ARC ROR ID (https://ror.org/05mmh0f86)
• This information should appear in both the publication text and metadata

5. Protect Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (mandatory where applicable)

For research involving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities, researchers must:

• Recognise and respect Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP)
• Agree early on ownership, access, use, and sharing of outputs
• Support Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Indigenous-led governance
• Enable co-authorship and appropriate attribution
• Use Traditional Knowledge Notices and Labels where appropriate
• Apply more restrictive Creative Commons licences (e.g. CC BY-ND) if culturally required
• See Swinburne's Indigenous Research policies and guides

6. Final reporting and compliance

Researchers must:

• List all research outputs in the Final Report
• Assign a DOI to all reported outputs
• If an output cannot meet open access requirements within the required timeframe, provide:
  • A justification
  • Steps taken to comply
  • A timeline and responsibility for future compliance

At least one version of every NHMRC- or MRFF-funded research paper must:

• Be made immediately open access (no embargo)
• Be published with a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence
• Be either:
  • the Version of Record (journal open access), or
  • the Author Accepted Manuscript deposited in a repository, or
  • a CC BY licensed preprint in a recognised preprint server

Metadata for the paper must be openly available in a repository within 3 months of publication.

All research outputs must:

• Acknowledge the relevant funder(s)
• Include the grant identification number(s)
• For NHMRC-funded outputs, include the NHMRC Research Organization Registry (ROR) ID

This information should appear in both the publication and its metadata.

Researchers must take reasonable steps to share research data and metadata using an:

“As open as possible, as closed as necessary” approach

Key requirements:

• Adhere to the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) and CARE principles
• Include a data availability statement in all research papers
• Deposit data in an appropriate, trusted repository with a persistent identifier (e.g. DOI)
• Clearly state access conditions, including any restrictions

Sensitive, confidential, or Indigenous data must be handled in line with ethics, consent, privacy law, and Indigenous Data Sovereignty requirements.

Where a public health emergency is declared, researchers must:

• Deposit relevant data and metadata in a trusted repository
• Do so within one month of data acquisition (once quality is assured)
• Apply FAIR and CARE principles

This enables rapid, responsible data reuse during crises.

For NHMRC/MRFF-funded research involving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, researchers must:

• Recognise and protect Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP)
• Respect Indigenous Data Sovereignty and governance
• Agree early on ownership, access, use, and sharing of research outputs
• Support Indigenous leadership, governance, and co-authorship where appropriate
• See Swinburne's Indigenous Research policies and guides

More restrictive licences (e.g. CC BY-ND) may be used where culturally appropriate.

All NHMRC- or MRFF-funded clinical trials must:

• Be registered in the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR) (or equivalent) before recruitment begins
• Report results and include the trial registration ID in publications and reports
• Share results in a timely manner (ideally within 12 months of completion)

Trial data should also be discoverable via Health Data Australia where possible.

• All NHMRC-funded researchers must have an ORCID iD
• For newly awarded NHMRC grants, CIAs must have a valid ORCID recorded in Sapphire to be eligible to hold funding.

Researchers must:

• Report all research outputs in final grant reports
• Include persistent identifiers (e.g. DOIs) for each output

NHMRC and MRFF will monitor institutional and national compliance using open bibliometric data and other evaluation approaches.