Open Access

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The open access movement promotes free and open online access to information, centralized around academic publications and data. Open access works are available to all without financial, legal, or technical barriers. Beyond immediate availability, the work must also be free to download, copy, distribute, print, search for, and search within. These parameters for the term derive from the pivotal Budapest Declaration in 2002, which came from an international coalition of scholars. 

Mobilization around open access rose from structural barriers to providing equitable academic research in the digital era. Corporate journal subscription bundles known as ‘Big Deals’ increased prices while production costs lowered. Governments provide the majority of research funding and researchers typically do not receive payment for their work. Advocates argue that open access publishing accelerates the advancement of human knowledge, allows for diverse contributions to scholarly conversations, and reaches a larger and broader audience.