Budapest Open Access Initiative

The Budapest Open Access Initiative is an interdisciplinary initiative of European and American scientists with the aim to provide free access to research results to the public.

It arose from a conference in Budapest, the Open Society Institute ( OSI) in December 2001 organized. In the Berlin Declaration of 23 October 2003, the initiative and large science organizations called on all researchers and heads of research projects, to make the results of their work on the Internet, including the right to information free use, copy, and forwarding.

The initiative brings together the international effort to open access, free on-line access to scientific literature in professional journals and other forms of publication. It represents initiatives from a variety of disciplines, nations and with different perspectives. The initiative discussed their common goals and seek the broadest and most effective strategies to bring the benefits of Open Access for research, its institutions and research funds generally available soon. The economic aspects of open access publishing and thus potential problems of academic publishers are important topics for discussion.

The Budapest Open Access movement also represents a policy statement is a statement about possible strategies and a commitment by the participants / inside. It was signed by the participants of the Budapest meeting, and since then a growing number of individuals and organizations from many countries and areas of expertise: Scientist / inside, universities, academies, libraries, funding agencies, publishers, journals, Learned Societies and open access initiatives. The movement invites all members of the worldwide scientific community a support and participation in the initiative.