Dear Colleagues
I am pleased to announce that Dr Virginia Barbour has been appointed as the Executive Officer of the Australian Open Access Support Group and will commence in the new role from 2 February, 2015. Dr Barbour is currently Medicine and Biology Editorial Director, PLOS and has extensive experience in scholarly communications both nationally and internationally, including being Chair of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Dr Barbour is an accomplished open access advocate with experience in implementing new models for access to scientific research outputs – publications and data. Her qualifications and expertise in scholarly communication are outstanding. She is based in Brisbane.
As an Adjunct Professor at University of Queensland and a Professor in the School of Medicine at Griffith University, Dr Barbour has a deep understanding of the research process and scholarly communications from the researcher’s perspective.
We welcome Dr Barbour to our AOASG Team.
I would also like to take this opportunity to recognise the outstanding work of Dr Danny Kingsley, the inaugural Executive Officer for the AOASG who worked hard to establish the AOASG, as well as the great work done by Ms Susannah Sabine, who took over from Danny mid-2014 and was responsible for organising the AOASG’s first Open Access Forum and open access webinars in late 2014. We are grateful to both Danny and Susannah for their contribution to supporting open access, and wish them well in the future.
Judy Stokker
Chair, Australian Open Access Support Group (AOASG)