THE Australian National University’s research will today go live on the internet.

More than 400 theses, 4000 research papers and more than 2000 images will be added to the ANU’s digital collections.

Vice-chancellor professor Ian Young said as the nation’s university, ANU has a special responsibility to share the wealth of work from top scholars across all disciplines.

“Open access to top quality research and images is good for the nation and the world, as well as other institutions and individuals,” he said.

“There is an increasing recognition globally of the need to ensure broader access to scholarly research with good examples of this occurring in Europe and the US.

“In Australia, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) is moving towards making it a requirement to have funded research findings openly accessible, and the Australian Research Council (ARC) strongly encourages it.

“Also the Federal Government has called for more public engagement by universities and the ANU has long believed that scholars must play a central role in improving the standard of public debate. Opening access to research is another step in increasing the impact academics can have in public debate and policy development.”

To view the digital collections visit, https://digitalcollections.anu.edu.au and two related webpages research.anu.edu.au/access and research.anu.edu.au/thesis