History of Open Access

Open access (OA) means unrestricted online access to peer-reviewed scholarly research. Open access is primarily intended for scholarly journal articles, but it is also provided for a growing number of theses, book chapters and scholarly monographs.

The first major international statement on open access was the Budapest Open Access Initiative in February 2002, launched by the Open Society Institute. It provided the first definition of open access therm. But the whole movement goes back more than 30 years.

Two further statements followed: the Bethesda statement on Open Access Publishing in June 2003 and the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities in October 2003. Bethesda defined the publication process in open access and the Berlin declaration sums upthe basic ideas of Open Access Movement and invites everyone to support the open access ideas by signing the declaration.

BUT signed the Berlin Declaration in 2013.

These 3 documents are called BBB initiative and they lay down the fundamental background of Open Access Movement.

You can find more information here:

• SUBER, Peter. Open access. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, c2012, xii, 242 p. MIT Press essential knowledge series. ISBN 02-625-1763-9.
• SWAN, Alma. Policy guidelines for the development and promotion of open access. Paris: United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, 2012. ISBN 978-923-0010-522.