The Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) offered the first definition of open access (OA) on February 14, 2002. The initiative proposed complementary strategies for realizing OA and launched a worldwide campaign for OA to all new research. Through consultations and convenings, the BOAI has provided detailed strategic recommendations, which it updated on its 10th anniversary in 2012 and 20th anniversary in 2022. 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.
Today, on the 23rd anniversary of our original declaration, we are pleased to announce that the BOAI 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.”
The BOAI Org will focus on the overarching problem of the inequitable development of OA. We will do so by providing leadership and resources to address the following challenges:
- Article-processing-charge (APC)-based journals exclude authors for economic reasons and without regard to the quality and importance of their work.
- Lack of awareness, understanding and appreciation of systems operating in the Global South.
- Read-and-publish agreements exacerbate existing inequalities in scholarly publishing.
And we will collaborate with established partners in the field to address the following challenges:
- OA research is at risk of enclosure when hosted on closed, proprietary or commercial infrastructure.
- The research assessment process is broken and contains perverse incentives that positively harm the scholarly community.
We are seeking additional partners and funding to fully operationalize our activities.
Over the last nine months, we have developed a two-tiered governance structure consisting of a small Steering Committee which provides direct strategic guidance and oversight of project leadership, and a larger Advisory Board, which offers guidance and support to the project, by sharing geographic or subject-area expertise. More information can be found on our updated website or please contact Melissa Hagemann (mh[at]budapestopenaccessinitiative.org).