Open Access in Context

4. Brief History of Major Open Access Initiatives

The major statements and declarations on the principles of Open Access were made on three international platforms, giving rise to the 'BBB definition' of Open Access.  Follow the links to learn more about each initiative:

• Budapest OA Initiative – The Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) was launched by Open Society Foundations in 2002.  There are new guidelines issued for their tenth anniversary.

• Bethesda Statement on OA Publishing – This international statement came out in April 2003 in Maryland, USA with the purpose of initiating discussions on how to provide open access to the primary scientific literature in the area of biomedical research.

• Berlin Declaration on OA – This declaration on ‘Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities’ was undersigned by many international institutions in October 2003; it draws upon the Budapest and Bethesda Open Access principles.

The slides below give an around-the-world tour of the history of Open Access (access the text version by following this link).

For those who are interested in more, this wiki at http://oad.simmons.edu/oadwiki/Timeline provides a very detailed timeline of Open Access initiatives worldwide.