The Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities is an international statement on open access and access to knowledge. It emerged from a conference on open access hosted in the Harnack House in Berlin by the Max Planck Society in 2003.

The declaration was drafted at an October 2003 conference held by the Max Planck Society and the European Cultural Heritage Online (ECHO) project. More than 120 cultural and political organizations from around the world attended.

Statement

The statement itself was published on October 22, 2003. Acknowledging the increasing importance of the internet and the previous discussions on the need for open access, it offered the following definition of an open access contribution:

It also encouraged researchers and institutions to publish their work in accordance with these principles, advocate for open access and help in the development and assessment of open access related tools and measures.

Signatories

, there are 828 signatories of the declaration. Max Planck Society and Helmholtz Association were among the first signatories. Signatories include governments, universities, research institutions, funding agencies, foundations, libraries, museums, archives, learned societies and professional associations.

Legacy

At a 2005 follow-up conference, the declaration was refined to two key principles: signatories should require researchers to deposit a copy of their work in an open access repository and encourage the publication of work in open access journals when available. Today these two concepts are often called "green OA" and "gold OA", respectively, and the two combined are referred to as an open-access mandate.

In 2013, on the 10th anniversary of the declaration, a mission statement was published with a goal of ensuring that 90% of research is published within an open access model.

See also

  • Open access around the world:
  • Africa: South Africa
  • Americas: Canada
  • Asia: India
  • Europe: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine
  • Plan S — a European open access science publishing initiative launched in late2018

References

  • Text of the Declaration (pdf)