Compliance is mandatory across Australian government-funded medical research

Government-funded medical and health research in Australia will now need to comply with new open science guidelines.

A policy announced by the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Medical Research Future Fund on 30 January mandates open science practices “across the entire research cycle”.

“Open science supports and improves transparency, reproducibility and replicability of research, aiming to reduce waste, minimise unnecessary research duplication and maximise the benefits and value arising from research funding,” the NHMRC and MRFF policy says.

Complying with open science practices will be part of the two bodies’ funding agreements.

“Administering organisations of NHMRC and MRFF grant funds are strongly encouraged to have or develop an institutional open science policy consistent with this policy. They are also encouraged to consider rewarding open science practices as part of recruitment, evaluation and promotion processes.”

Together, the NHMRC and the MRFF distribute around A$1.6 billion annually.

Policy details

The policy includes open access publication rules and a requirement that original research data be made available in a “trusted repository”. Repositories will need to comply with the Care and Fair standards, covering issues such as who has control of and access to data, and how to provide it in a reusable format.

Under the new policy, software used for carrying out research will need to be made available, methods should be fully described and the results of clinical trials will be shared in a “timely” manner, ideally within a year of the main study being completed.

Commercial restrictions will be allowed, but they must be explained to the funding body.

Researchers working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders will be expected to “take actions that consider ownership, management, use of, access to and distribution of research results and outputs”, and to protect cultural and intellectual property.

The NHMRC and the MRFF will monitor compliance through measures such as the rate of open access publication.

The policy applies to all grant schemes opening from 1 January this year, although the council said “a small number” of exemptions might apply.