BOAI Organization
The Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) offered the first definition of open access (OA), proposed complementary strategies for realizing OA, and launched a worldwide campaign for OA to all new peer-reviewed research. Through consultations and convenings, the BOAI has provided critical global strategies which have been updated regularly over the past twenty years. Our recent BOAI20 Recommendations emphasize that OA is not an end in itself, but a means to other ends – above all, to the equity, quality, usability, and sustainability of research. As a result, the BOAI offers a unique platform for discussions on OA strategies and their implementation.
Building on the legacy of the BOAI, the initiative is in the process of transitioning to play a more active role within the Access to Knowledge movement. The new organization will foster the development of equitable open access and support the adoption of policies, practices and sustainability models that make scholarly communications free to read and publish. The BOAI Org will provide support and guidance to accelerate the implementation of our 20th Anniversary Recommendations which address the systemic problems that obstruct progress towards the realization of our original vision that “an old tradition and a new technology have converged to make possible an unprecedented public good.
Steering Committee
Dr. Arianna Becerril García
Executive Director, Redalyc, Network of Diamond OA Journals
Chair, AmeliCA, Open Knowledge for the Global South
Professor, Autonomous University of the State of Mexico
Dr. Arianna Becerril García is a full-time professor at the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico (UAEM) and Member of the National System of Researchers (SNI) of Mexico. She was the recipient of the 2022 Young Scientist Award by the Council of Science and Technology of the State of Mexico and the 2021 Early Career Scientist Award (South America and the Caribbean) by the International Science Council. She holds a PhD and MSc in Computer Science, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico and a BA in Computer Engineering, UAEM. She is part of the founding team of the Scientific Information System Redalyc.org where she is the current Executive Director. Dr Becerril is founder and president of AmeliCA Conocimiento Abierto S.C and co-founder of Red Mexicana de Repositorios Institucionales (“Mexican Network of Institutional Repositories”). She participated as part of the advisory team of the Open Access national legislation in Mexico in 2014. She’s currently a member of the council of the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). She also participates as an advisory board member of different international initiatives. She has coordinated various multilateral projects supported by UNESCO, in partnership with organizations such as the Indian Statistical Institute, and governmental entities as the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation of Angola, where she participated in the recommendations for the national legislation on Open Access.
Leslie Chan
Associate Professor & Director, Knowledge Equity Lab, Dept of Global Develoment Studies, University of Toronto Scarborough
Leslie Chan is Associate Professor and the director of the Knowledge Equity Lab in the Department of Global Development Studies, University of Toronto Scarborough. As an early practitioner of the Web for scholarly exchange and online learning, Leslie has been interested in the role and design of knowledge infrastructure and their impact on local and international development. In particular, he has been studying the geopolitics of academic knowledge production and the uneven power relations embedded in this production. One of the original signatories of the BOAI, Leslie was the PI of the Open and Collaborative Science in Development Network (OCSDNet) funded by IDRC and DFID. He is on the advisory board of several international organizations, including the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) and the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), and was a founding steering committee of Invest in Open Infrastructure (IOI).
Iryna Kuchma
Manager, EIFL Open Access Programme
Iryna Kuchma has been managing the EIFL Open Access Programme (EIFL-OA) since 2008. Working in collaboration with libraries and library consortia in more than 50 countries in Africa, Asia and Europe, she advocates for open access to research results, facilitates the development and implementation of open science policies and infrastructures, and provides support and training.
Iryna sits on the boards of the BOAI Org, Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR), the Global Sustainability Coalition for Open Science Services (SCOSS) and the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD). In addition, she serves on the advisory board of Open Access Week and is a member of the Coalition Publi.ca International Committee and the DSpace Community Advisory Team.
Nick Shockey
Director of Programs & Engagement, SPARC
Nick Shockey is the Director of Programs & Engagement at SPARC, where he has worked since 2009. Nick works across SPARC to identify areas to better support member libraries, co-leads SPARC’s communities of practice related to negotiations and privacy, and leads SPARC’s student and next generation-focused initiatives. Nick served on the BOAI15 Working Group and currently serves on a variety of advisory boards, including those for International Open Access Week, OA.Works, and the Open Negotiation Education for Academic Libraries Project (ONEAL).
Peter Suber
Senior Advisor for Open Access, Harvard Library
Director of the Harvard Open Access Project, Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society
Peter Suber is the Senior Advisor for Open Access in the Harvard Library and Director of the Harvard Open Access Project in the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. By training he’s a philosopher and lawyer, and stepped down from his position as a tenured professor of philosophy in 2003 to work full-time on open access. He was the principal drafter of the Budapest Open Access Initiative (2002) and its 10th and 20th anniversary updates (2012, 2022). He serves on the boards of many groups devoted to open access and scholarly communication, and has been active in fostering open access for many years through his research, speaking, and writing. For more information, see his home page <bit.ly/petersuber>.
Staff
Melissa Hagemann
Director
Melissa Hagemann has been a leader of the Access to Knowledge movement for over twenty years. She managed the Open Society Institute’s (now Open Society Foundations) work to define Open Access through the BOAI and went on to support the development of the global Open Access movement. To mark the 20th anniversary of the BOAI, she spearheaded the development of new recommendations which emphasize that Open Access is not an end in itself, but a means to further ends, above all, to the equity, quality, sustainability, and usability of research.
In addition, she helped to define strategies for the growth of the global open education movement, as well as supported the development of progressive copyright reform at the national and international levels. She has served on numerous boards, including the Advisory Board of the Wikimedia Foundation, as well as the Open Climate Campaign.