[BOAI] Marking the 15th Anniversary of the Open Access Movement

[Iryna Kuchma]

[Forwarded message from Heather Joseph <heather at sparcopen.org>]

Dear All,

This year marks the 15th Anniversary of the Budapest Open Access Initiative
(BOAI), a landmark meeting convened in Budapest by the Open Society
Foundations (OSF) that aimed to accelerate progress in the international
effort to make research articles in all academic fields freely available.
The participants issued a widely circulated declaration (subsequently
signed by more than 5,000 organizations and individuals) that beautifully
articulated the goals of the Open Access movement.  The declaration reads
in part:

"An old tradition and a new technology have converged to make possible an
unprecedented public good. The old tradition is the willingness of
scientists and scholars to publish the fruits of their research in
scholarly journals without payment, for the sake of inquiry and knowledge.
The new technology is the internet. The public good they make possible is
the world-wide electronic distribution of the peer-reviewed journal
literature and completely free and unrestricted access to it by all
scientists, scholars, teachers, students, and other curious minds.

"Removing access barriers to this literature will accelerate research,
enrich education, share the learning of the rich with the poor and the poor
with the rich, make this literature as useful as it can be, and lay the
foundation for uniting humanity in a common intellectual conversation and
quest for knowledge."

The BOAI declaration has since become widely recognized for establishing
the definition of open access, and for articulating specific strategies to
promote its adoption. To commemorate this anniversary, an international
working group was convened to take stock of progress made to date, and to
recommend updates to the BOAI strategy.  The results this effort, which
include a comprehensive community survey, will be released in the next few
months.

To complement this effort, OA pioneer Jean-Claude Guédon authored a
comprehensive article providing his perspective on the progress - as well
as the stumbles - made by the open access movement over the last 15 years.
This paper, titled “*Toward the Internet of the Mind,*” provides a
thoughtful analysis of the considerable challenges that still remain in
achieving the full BOAI vision of Open Access, and offers insight on
strategies to capitalize on new opportunities for progress.

To find the full text of this paper, and to revisit the full text of the
BOAI declaration, please visit:
http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/boai15-1

All best,
Heather


Heather Joseph
Executive Director, SPARC
21 Dupont Circle Suite 800
Washington, DC USA
+1 202 296 2296 <(202)%20296-2296>
heather at sparcopen.org
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