BOAI Marks 20th Anniversary with New Recommendations

The Budapest Open Access Initiative, the first international open access declaration, marked its 20th anniversary on February 14, 2022. To celebrate this milestone, the BOAI steering committee has released new recommendations for the next 10 years based on a series of community consultations, which will be discussed at their 20th Anniversary Webcast. The four new recommendations that will be highlighted are:

1. Host OA research on open infrastructure. Host and publish OA texts, data, metadata, code, and other digital research outputs on open, community-controlled infrastructure. Use infrastructure that minimizes the risk of future access restrictions or control by commercial organizations. Where open infrastructure is not yet adequate for current needs, develop it further.
2. Reform research assessment and rewards to improve incentives. Adjust research assessment practices for funding decisions and university hiring, promotion, and tenure decisions. Eliminate disincentives for OA and create positive new incentives for OA.
3. Favor inclusive publishing and distribution channels that never exclude authors on economic grounds. Take full advantage of OA repositories and no-APC journals (“green” and “diamond” OA). Move away from article processing charges (APCs). 
4. When we spend money to publish OA research, remember the goals to which OA is the means. Favor models which benefit all regions of the world, which are controlled by academic-led and nonprofit organizations, which avoid concentrating new OA literature in commercially dominant journals, and which avoid entrenching models in conflict with these goals. Move away from read-and-publish agreements.

⭐️ Read the full BOAI 20th anniversary recommendations.

Image by Natalia Yakovleva on Unsplash