Building on the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities and on the progress that has been achieved so far, we are pursuing the large-scale implementation of free online access to, and largely unrestricted use and re-use of scholarly research articles.
We recognize and endorse various ways of implementing open access (OA), including the development of new OA publishing platforms, archives and repositories. In scholarly journal publishing, OA has gained a substantial and increasing volume. Most journals, however, are still based on the subscription business model with its inherent deficiencies in terms of access, cost-efficiency, transparency, and restrictions of use.
To gain the full benefits of OA and enable a smooth, swift and scholarly oriented transition, the existing corpus of scholarly journals should be converted from subscription to open access. Recent developments and studies indicate that this transition process can be realized within the framework of currently available resources.
With this statement, we express our interest in establishing an international initiative for the OA transformation of scholarly journals, and we agree upon the following key aspects:
- We aim to transform a majority of today’s scholarly journals from subscription to OA publishing in accordance with community-specific publication preferences. At the same time, we continue to support new and improved forms of OA publishing.
- We will pursue this transformation process by converting resources currently spent on journal subscriptions into funds to support sustainable OA business models. Accordingly, we intend to re-organize the underlying cash flows, to establish transparency with regard to costs and potential savings, and to adopt mechanisms to avoid undue publication barriers.
- We invite all parties involved in scholarly publishing, in particular universities, research institutions, funders, libraries, and publishers to collaborate on a swift and efficient transition for the benefit of scholarship and society at large.
Specific steps and milestones for the transformation process shall be outlined in a roadmap to be further developed in the course of this initiative. We see the initiative as one element of a more profound evolution of the academic publishing system that will lead to major improvements in scholarly communication and research evaluation.
The following 148 scholarly organizations have officially signed the Expression of Interest. Have a look at the world map of signatories.
Further parties that have formally declared their endorsement are listed at the bottom of this page.
Organization | Countries and Regions | Date |
---|---|---|
Austrian Academy of Sciences | Austria | 2020-10-30 |
SciELO - Scientific Electronic Library Online | Brazil | 2020-10-11 |
University of Alberta | Canada | 2020-09-17 |
University of the Free State | South Africa | 2020-04-06 |
Fiji National University | Fiji | 2020-04-03 |
Electronic Information For Librarians (EIFL) | Lithuania | 2020-03-09 |
Scientific and Technical Library, Dnipro National University of Railway Transport | Ukraine | 2020-02-12 |
The State Scientific and Technical Library of Ukraine | Ukraine | 2020-02-10 |
California Digital Library | United States of America | 2020-01-13 |
Freie Universität Berlin | Germany | 2019-11-14 |
University of California, Irvine | United States of America | 2019-05-08 |
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center | United States of America | 2019-03-19 |
Guangxi University of Chinese Medicine | P. R. China | 2019-03-18 |
Southern University of Science and Technology Library | P. R. China | 2019-03-06 |
University of California, Santa Barbara | United States of America | 2019-03-06 |
Sun Yat-sen Library of Guangdong Province | P. R. China | 2019-02-12 |
The Da Vinci Institute For Technology Management | South Africa | 2019-01-29 |
University of California, San Diego | United States of America | 2019-01-25 |
Guangxi University of Science and Technology Library | P. R. China | 2019-01-19 |
University of Abomey-Calavi | Benin | 2019-01-19 |
Nanjing Normal University Library | P. R. China | 2019-01-16 |
National School of Government | South Africa | 2019-01-16 |
Fudan University Library | P.R. China | 2019-01-15 |
Université des Montagnes (UdM) | Cameroon | 2019-01-15 |
Ukana West 2 Community Based Health Initiative (CBHI), Primary Health Centre | Nigeria | 2019-01-14 |
Busitema University | Uganda | 2019-01-08 |
University of Jos | Nigeria | 2019-01-08 |
Imo State University | Nigeria | 2019-01-07 |
University of California, Santa Cruz | United States of America | 2019-01-07 |
China University of Mining and Technology Library | P. R. China | 2019-01-06 |
Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization | Kenya | 2019-01-01 |
Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University Library | P. R. China | 2018-12-20 |
Nanjing University Library | P. R. China | 2018-12-16 |
Sichuan University Library | P. R. China | 2018-12-10 |
Tsinghua University Library | P. R. China | 2018-11-21 |
Peking University Library | P. R. China | 2018-11-16 |
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) | Italy | 2018-10-23 |
Australasian Open Access Strategy Group (AOASG) | Australia | 2018-09-24 |
Royal Danish Library | Denmark | 2018-06-26 |
Hellenic Academic Libraries Link | Greece | 2018-06-08 |
Institute of Mediterranean Forest Ecosystems | Greece | 2018-04-02 |
Wayne State University | United States of America | 2018-03-21 |
University of California Los Angeles | United States of America | 2018-03-20 |
University of California Riverside | United States of America | 2018-03-14 |
Iowa State University Library | United States of America | 2018-03-08 |
University of North Texas | United States of America | 2018-02-20 |
Guangdong Science and Technology Library | P. R. China | 2018-02-07 |
National Electronic Information Consortium (NEICON) | Russian Federation | 2018-01-31 |
National Taiwan Normal University Library | Chinese Taipei | 2018-01-24 |
Agricultural Information Institute (AII), Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) | P. R. China | 2018-01-19 |
Technical University of Kenya | Kenya | 2017-12-17 |
WWU Münster | Germany | 2017-12-11 |
Researchers Group of Solid State Physics Japan | Japan | 2017-12-01 |
National and University Library of Iceland | Iceland | 2017-11-09 |
ShanghaiTech University Library | P. R. China | 2017-10-30 |
National Science and Technology Library (NSTL) | P. R. China | 2017-10-26 |
National Science Library (NSL), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) | P. R. China | 2017-10-24 |
ZB MED - Information Centre for Life Science | Germany | 2017-10-23 |
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) University Library | Kingdom of Saudi Arabia | 2017-09-27 |
Chemnitz University of Technology | Germany | 2017-09-19 |
University of California Merced | United States of America | 2017-09-19 |
Hungarian Electronic Information Service National Programme | Hungary | 2017-07-13 |
University of Potsdam | Germany | 2017-05-18 |
The Association of Swedish Higher Education (SUHF) | Sweden | 2017-05-11 |
CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior) | Brazil | 2017-04-13 |
Leipzig University | Germany | 2017-03-27 |
swissuniversities | Switzerland | 2017-03-21 |
University of California Berkeley | United States of America | 2017-03-20 |
University of California Davis | United States of America | 2017-03-20 |
University of California San Francisco | United States of America | 2017-03-20 |
Göttingen State and University Library (SUB) | Germany | 2017-03-16 |
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) | Norway | 2017-03-15 |
Qatar National Library | Qatar | 2017-03-15 |
South African National Library and Information Consortium (SANLiC) | South Africa | 2017-03-01 |
Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) | Sweden | 2017-02-07 |
Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO) | Norway | 2017-01-23 |
The Conference of Italian University Rectors (CRUI) | Italy | 2017-01-18 |
National Library of Technology, Prague | Czech Republic | 2016-11-27 |
Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities | Germany | 2016-10-20 |
University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg | South Africa | 2016-10-10 |
Belgorod State University | Russian Federation | 2016-09-28 |
German National Library of Science and Technology (TIB) | Germany | 2016-09-26 |
Collegium Artium | Poland | 2016-09-24 |
University of Library Studies and Information Technologies (UniBIT) | Bulgaria | 2016-09-08 |
German Quaternary Association (DEUQUA) | Germany | 2016-08-23 |
The Czech Academy of Sciences | Czech Republic | 2016-08-22 |
Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) | Germany | 2016-08-15 |
MAGNANIMITAS Assn. | Czech Republic | 2016-08-12 |
JUSTICE: Japan Alliance of University Library Consortia for E-Resources | Japan | 2016-08-09 |
Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences | Switzerland | 2016-08-02 |
Mainzer Wissenschaftsallianz | Germany | 2016-07-26 |
California State University, Northridge | United States of America | 2016-07-20 |
Covenant University, Ota | Nigeria | 2016-07-20 |
Hugo Grotius gGmbH - gemeinnützige Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Rechtswissenschaften | Germany | 2016-07-20 |
The Norwegian Institute of Palaeography and Historical Philology | Norway | 2016-07-20 |
University of Twente | Netherlands | 2016-06-14 |
Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz | Germany | 2016-06-02 |
Stockholm University | Sweden | 2016-06-02 |
Open Access India | India | 2016-05-20 |
World Meteorological Organization (WMO) | International | 2016-05-12 |
Radboud University, Nijmegen | Netherlands | 2016-05-10 |
University of Kassel | Germany | 2016-04-27 |
Technische Universität Braunschweig | Germany | 2016-04-26 |
Jisc | United Kingdom | 2016-04-22 |
Stiftelsen Riksbankens Jubileumsfond | Sweden | 2016-04-22 |
FinELib consortium | Finland | 2016-04-20 |
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam | Netherlands | 2016-04-19 |
Wikimedia Norge | Norway | 2016-04-13 |
Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST Austria) | Austria | 2016-04-06 |
Universidad de Santiago de Chile (USACH) | Chile | 2016-04-01 |
Bielefeld University | Germany | 2016-03-31 |
ANKOS (Anatolian University Libraries Consortium) | Turkey | 2016-03-28 |
National Library of Korea | South Korea | 2016-03-24 |
Beilstein-Institut | Germany | 2016-03-23 |
German Society for Pre- and Protohistory (DGUF) | Germany | 2016-03-23 |
Swiss National Science Foundation SNSF | Switzerland | 2016-03-23 |
European Geosciences Union (EGU) | Europe | 2016-03-22 |
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation | Germany | 2016-03-21 |
Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU) | Netherlands | 2016-03-21 |
Austrian Science Fund (FWF) | Austria | 2016-03-21 |
CODE | South Korea | 2016-03-21 |
Current Research Information System In Norway (CRIStin) | Norway | 2016-03-21 |
Denmark′s Electronic Research Library (DEFF) | Denmark | 2016-03-21 |
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) | Germany | 2016-03-21 |
European University Association (EUA) | Europe | 2016-03-21 |
Foundation for Science and Technology FCT | Portugal | 2016-03-21 |
Foundation Telethon | Italy | 2016-03-21 |
Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (FhG) | Germany | 2016-03-21 |
Geological Survey of Spain (IGME) | Spain | 2016-03-21 |
German Council of Science and Humanities (Wissenschaftsrat) | Germany | 2016-03-21 |
German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina | Germany | 2016-03-21 |
German Rectors′ Conference (HRK) | Germany | 2016-03-21 |
Helmholtz Association | Germany | 2016-03-21 |
Institute of Health Carlos III | Spain | 2016-03-21 |
KISTI (Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information) | South Korea | 2016-03-21 |
Leibniz Association | Germany | 2016-03-21 |
Max Planck Society (MPG) | Germany | 2016-03-21 |
National Institute for Agronomic Research (INIA) | Spain | 2016-03-21 |
National Library of Sweden | Sweden | 2016-03-21 |
Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) | Netherlands | 2016-03-21 |
Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences | Norway | 2016-03-21 |
Pontifical Academies of Sciences and Social Sciences | Vatican City | 2016-03-21 |
Seoul National University Library (SNU Library) | South Korea | 2016-03-21 |
Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) | Spain | 2016-03-21 |
UiT The Arctic University of Tromsø | Norway | 2016-03-21 |
UKB (Dutch consortium of the thirteen university libraries and the National Library of the Netherlands) | Netherlands | 2016-03-21 |
University of Bergen | Norway | 2016-03-21 |
University of Oslo | Norway | 2016-03-21 |
13 further parties have declared their endorsement:
Organization | Country | Date |
---|---|---|
Shanghai Jiao Tong University Journal Center | P. R. China | 2020-04-03 |
Chronos Hub | Denmark | 2020-02-12 |
Sciencepaper Online | P. R. China | 2019-03-27 |
Centre for Budget and Policy Studies | India | 2019-03-15 |
Ubiquity Press | United States of America | 2019-02-03 |
LE BELLE LETTERE | Italy | 2019-01-09 |
Cogitatio Press | Portugal | 2018-10-12 |
ORVIUM OÜ - Open and Transparent Science Powered by Blockchain | Estonia | 2018-07-08 |
SciPost | Netherlands | 2017-12-19 |
Webpublishers Association | Russian Federation | 2017-12-04 |
Ariadna Ediciones | Chile | 2017-11-01 |
MDPI (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute) | Switzerland | 2017-01-04 |
ACIB GmbH - Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology | Austria | 2016-08-30 |
Sciemcee | United Kingdom | 2016-08-08 |
Copernicus GmbH | Germany | 2016-06-01 |