Open access to open publish: National Library of Australia

Abstract

Academic and scholarly journals are in trouble: small print runs, part-time editors, and dwindling funds are conspiring to crush them. But help is at hand: new trends in open access publishing support free, digital and open access to research literature, bringing writing and discourse to new and wider audiences. The National Library of Australia has created an Open Publish Web space, using the Open Journal Systems (OJS) digital publishing software to manage, host and deliver an online open access journal service. The Library's objective is to establish "new ways of collecting, sharing, recording, disseminating and preserving knowledge". We want "to ensure our relevance in a rapidly changing world, [by participating] in new online communities". For these reasons, the Library decided to engage in an open access journal publishing trial. This paper outlines the collaboration between the Library and the Association for the Study of Australian Literature to migrate their peer-reviewed journal, JASAL, to an online format. The successful outcome has informed the Library's decision to include Open Publish journals in the Library's collections.