By Sara Girard
Australian Research Council and La Trobe University Launch Pilot Program with CHOR to Improve Public Access to Government-Sponsored Research in Peer Reviewed Publications
(2 March 2017, New York, NY) CHOR, a developer of public access research management solutions, today announced its second international pilot program to assist government funding agencies in the identification and tracking of public accessibility to published research in peer-reviewed journals. Starting in March 2017, in partnership with the Australian Research Council (ARC) and Melbourne-based La Trobe University, CHOR will begin monitoring global publication of research funded by the Australian Government through the ARC.
Similar to CHOR’s August 2016 pilot with the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), this program will initiate CHOR reporting on the publication and accessibility of articles tagged as reporting on ARC-funded research.
“Compliance with public access policies is of importance to both funding agencies and publishers. CHOR welcomes the opportunity to partner with the ARC and La Trobe University to monitor compliance across the spectrum of our member publishers,” said CHOR executive director Howard Ratner. “As government funders continue to refine requirements for researchers, solutions like CHOR can also provide insight into the usage and overall success of policies intended to connect citizens to the scientific study they support.”
The pilot will be offered to the ARC at no cost in its first year, enabling the agency and CHOR to study and adapt the program to meet requirements that are unique to the Australian research community.
“The ARC is committed to ensuring the widest possible dissemination of the research supported by ARC funding, in the most effective manner. The CHOR pilot offers the opportunity to access and utilize expertise and a global approach to develop a sustainable, adaptable solution which should streamline our administration and compliance processes,” said the ARC’s Acting CEO, Ms Leanne Harvey.
La Trobe University’s participation with the ARC and CHOR on program development aims to provide a solution for researchers to the challenges of compliance and reporting. Developing a centralized solution with established processes is critical to reducing the cost of meeting public access requirements. The pilot will enable linking via metadata from the La Trobe University institutional repository to published articles reporting on ARC-funded research on CHOR publisher members’ sites, supported by a customised dashboard and search portal.
“The value of a trusted partner like CHOR to monitor content, expose open access publications, and standardise reporting is critical to our goals of maximising research impact,” said Simon Huggard, Deputy Director, Research and Collections at La Trobe University. “This pilot can point the way to a globalised system that delivers benefits to public and private funding organizations, research universities, libraries, and individuals around the world.”
All CHOR publisher members are welcome and encouraged to join the pilot. For more information please contact Howard Ratner at CHOR, Inc by email at [email protected].
ABOUT ARC:
The Australian Research Council (ARC) is a Commonwealth entity and advises the Australian Government on research matters, administers the National Competitive Grants Program, a significant component of Australia’s investment in research and development, and has responsibility for Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA). The ARC plays an important role in the provision of Australian Government support for research. The ARC’s mission is to deliver policy and programs that advance Australian research and innovation globally and benefit the community. In seeking to achieve its mission, the ARC supports the highest-quality fundamental and applied research and research training through national competition across all disciplines, with the exception of clinical and medical research. The outcomes of ARC-funded research deliver cultural, economic, social and environmental benefits to all Australians. For further information please visit the ARC website.
ABOUT La Trobe University: www.latrobe.edu.au
ABOUT CHOR Inc.
CHOR, Inc. is a non-profit membership global organization that promotes and supports perpetual public access to content reporting on funded research by leveraging existing and emergent digital technology used by scholarly publishing organizations and others in the scholarly community. CHOR’s first service, CHORUS, focuses on published content reporting on US-funded research. CHOR’s 50 members collectively produce the vast majority of published peer-reviewed journal articles.
The announcement is here.
