Meet funder requirements
Meet funder requirements
Learn how to comply with open access policy when looking to secure a grant for your research. Find information relating to both ARC and NHMRC open access grant obligations in the sections below.
ARC Open Access Policy
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The Australian Research Council (ARC) revised their open access policy in September 2021. It reflects a commitment to ensure research funded by the ARC is made available to the public.
Outputs must be openly accessible within 12 months
The ARC requires all research outputs arising from their grants to be made openly accessible within 12 months of publication.
This means the public can freely access, read, download, copy, distribute, print, search and reuse the research outputs.
In some cases, open access may not be possible due to legal or contractual obligations. Where this is the case, the reasons must be included in the final grant report to the ARC.
All research outputs from 2013 are covered under the policy
The policy applies to all research supported under ARC Grant Guidelines and Grant Agreements since 1 January 2013. It includes all products of an ARC-funded project that meets the definition of research:
- Books and book chapters
- Peer-reviewed journal articles
- Peer-reviewed conference papers that have been published in full as part of the conference proceedings
- It also covers non-traditional research outputs (NTROs) that have undergone an external review at the same standard as academic peer reviews.
The policy does not apply to:
- Preprints or comparable resources already publicly available
Research data is addressed under the ARC’s data management requirements.
How to comply with the policy
Make manuscripts, journal articles and conference papers available
There are two pathways that researchers can choose from for their peer-reviewed outputs
- A version of record or publisher’s version
You publish your peer-reviewed article in a journal and the article is made fully open access within 12 months. It may be provided as a PDF with final pagination and formatting.
Options include:
- Publish in a journal that is fully open access
- Take advantage of a ‘read and publish’ agreement and opt for open access with reduced or no article processing fees
- Budgeting for article processing fees in your journal of choice
- Author accepted manuscript or post-print
You make your author accepted manuscript available open access on Pure, Monash’s research management system. You must do this within 12 months of publication.
To choose this pathway you must include a rights retention statement when you submit your article. Some authors add this to the ‘Acknowledgements’ in their manuscript.
Rights retention statement
This research was funded in whole or part by the ARC [Grant number]. For the purposes of open access, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright to licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission.
Make your non-traditional research outputs (NTROs) available
The policy requires a meaningful and enduring digital representation of your outputs be made openly available. This can be through acceptable platforms such as:
- An institutional repository. At Monash, these are Pure, and Bridges.
- Pure: Allows Monash to report on compliance and ensures the correct metadata is applied.
- Bridges: Can be used for data and NTROs
- A publisher’s website – as long as there are no restrictions
- Public archive that is openly accessible. This includes PubMed Central® (PMC), Zenodo or OAlster.
If you want to easily track the reach and engagement of your NTRO, upload first to Bridges. This will give you a DOI that can then be included in Pure.
Understand copyright requirements
The ARC’s preference is for the Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC-BY). This is the most open international licence. However, it is acceptable to apply any of the options available through the Creative Commons suite of licences that are appropriate.
If the publisher does not offer appropriate CC-BY licenses, you will need to retain your copyright through a rights retention statement you place in your manuscript at submission.
NHMRC and MRFF Open Science Policy
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The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing (DHDA) are responsible for the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF). In February 2026 they launched a joint Open Science Policy.
“[It] marks a step forward in Australia’s commitment to research that is open, rigorous, and designed to benefit everyone.”
Publications must be made immediately open access
At least one version of a research paper that is supported in whole or in part by the NHMRC and/or MRFF must be made immediately open access.
This means:
- No embargo period, and
- Published with a Creative Commons ‘CC BY’ licence
What is Creative Commons ‘CC BY’ licence?
A licence that allows others to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator. The creator retains copyright for this material. Read more about the conditions of Creative Commons ‘CC BY’ licence.
It applies to:
- Peer-reviewed articles
- Peer-reviewed conference papers
The NHMRC encourages authors to make scholarly books and book chapters open access where possible.
Additional open science requirements
All research outputs must clearly acknowledge funder(s), include unique grant identification number(s), and be identified in final reports using appropriate persistent identifiers.
Chief Investigator A (CIA) must have a valid ORCID recorded in NHMRC’s grant system (Sapphire) to be eligible for newly-awarded NHMRC grants.
What is ORCID?
Open Researcher and Contributor ID is a unique identifier for you as a researcher. It distinguishes you from other researchers and connects you to your research outputs.
How to comply with the policy
You can comply with the revised policy through two routes:
1. Version of record
This is when your peer-reviewed article – or version of record – is published with a CC BY licence in a journal. This is the final version of the article that has been copy-edited and put into layout. It is exactly the same as what will appear in the journal. Two options are available:
- Publish in an open access journal. This is often called a Gold Open Access Journal and may incur article processing fees.
- Journal-based Open Access. Publish in a journal covered by our read and publish agreements and choose the open access CC BY option. This should not incur article processing fees.
2. Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM)
Upload your author accepted manuscript to a research repository. We recommend that Monash researchers use PURE, the University's research management system.
3. Preprints
A preprint is a research paper shared publicly before formal journal peer review. It can be shared at any point before your Version of Record is released.
You can publish it open access with a CC BY licence on a recognised archive or print print server that can be accessed by the public. At Monash, this includes My Research (Pure), the university-wide research management system.
This pathway does not replace traditional peer review or formal publication.
Rights retention statement
If you want to use the author-accepted manuscript option include the following statement at the same time you submit your manuscript for publication.
This is the text to include:
‘This research was funded in whole or part by [select the most appropriate]:
- The National Health and Medical Research Council [grant number(s)]
- The Medical Research Future Fund [grant number(s)]
- The Medical Research Future Fund [grant number(s)] and National Health and Medical Research Council [grant number(s)].
For the purposes of open access, the author has applied a CC BY licence to any author-accepted manuscript version arising from this submission.’
Some authors add this to the ‘Acknowledgements’ in their manuscript or in the cover letter.
You can then upload your AAM in an institutional repository such as Monash’s My Research (Pure).
Working with co-authors
You may be working with co-authors who do not have NHMRC funding. However, as an NHMRC grant recipient you will still need to adhere to the open access policy, even if you are not a lead author. It will be important to discuss with them your strategy and choices and to budget accordingly.
Monash co-authors can opt for their articles to be open access in more than 8,500 journals with no article processing fees under pre-negotiated agreements with publishers.
Steps to compliance
- Discuss your options and compliance obligations with your co-authors
- Choose your open access publishing route. Depending on your options you may need to consider
- Quality journals and those with high impact factors
- A budget for article processing charges
- Selecting a journal that is covered by a ‘Read and Publish’ agreement.
- Include a rights retention statement at the submission stage
- Seek help from your Faculty or the Library if you have questions
Get help
Book a one-to-one online consultation with one of our librarians.
Email us for specialist research support.