This subscription-based system is showing signs of increasing strain, and we believe that it is no longer the most advantageous means of disseminating crucial research results to all those interested, whether in our leading research institutions or in the wider community. By its very nature, it severely restricts access to leading edge research, published only in appropriate scientific journals and subscribed to by at best a handful of institutional libraries. Yet the advent of digital content and the web has the potential to render the current system obsolete....
There are two main routes to achieving open access, and we wish to register our support for both. The number of open access journals has been growing in recent years, with some publishers offering all their journals on an open access basis, and others offering it only for selected titles....The second route is usually described as 'self-archiving', where authors deposit the final, post peer review, electronic version of their articles in an institutional, or subject-based, repository: appropriate software adhering to open standards and encouraging interoperability allows these repositories to be searched jointly, and relevant articles retrieved from repositories located worldwide....
There is mounting evidence to suggest that open access increases the reach and impact of research. More people can and do view and read open access articles, and there are indications that these articles are cited more frequently and earlier than is the case for articles not available in this way.
The declaration uses the BOAI definition of OA. Funding agency signatories commit themselves (among other things) to "require as a condition of grant that publications resulting from funding are available on open access by means of self-archiving in an appropriate repository." University signatories commit themselves (among other things) to set up institutional repositories or work with other institutions on joint repositories, and to "encourage, and as soon as practical mandate" that faculty deposit their work in these repositories.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 10/15/2004 08:14:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
