The development of Open Access – or why Open Access isn't always Open Access

At first glance, the concept of Open Access seems straightforward: free access to scientific publications for everyone. However, the term 'Open Access' does not always mean exactly the same thing. Depending on the definition used, there can be small but significant differences. For example, TU Graz — like many other institutions — refers to the Berlin Declaration on Open Access. However, earlier Open Access declarations also exist. In this blog post, we explain how Open Access is defined in the different declarations and how the concept has evolved.

The origin of Open Access

As is well known, journals have been used for scientific communication since the 17th century. However, technological developments in the 20th century introduced new ways to disseminate research results. First, researchers began sending scientific articles to each other via email. Next came the first preprint servers, such as arXiv, which are still used today to publish papers before they appear in journals. The preprint culture is generally considered the foundation of Open Access.

The emergence of Open Access can be attributed to two developments that took place at roughly the same time from the 1990s onwards. On the one hand, there was easier internet access, and on the other, there were increasingly unaffordable licence fees for scientific and technical libraries to access scientific journals. These developments formed the basis of the emerging Open Access movement, which demanded free access to research results for everyone. This demand was formalised in various statements in the early 2000s, including the Budapest Open Access Initiative, the Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing, and the Berlin Declaration on Open Access.

Budapest Open Access Initiative

The Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) was an interdisciplinary project launched by European and American researchers in 2002. The initiative defined Open Access as follows:

"By "open access" to this literature, we mean its free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself. The only constraint on reproduction and distribution, and the only role for copyright in this domain, should be to give authors control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited." (https://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read)

In addition, the researchers recommended self-archiving papers and establishing alternative journals that are subject to open access requirements. According to the BOAI, publication in fee-based journals is also legitimate, provided there is a freely accessible online version. Articles with an embargo period, on the other hand, are not considered Open Access. Furthermore, only Open Access literature that has undergone peer review or been published on preprint servers prior to peer review is eligible for funding.

Bethesda Statement of Open Access Publishing

The Bethesda Statement was authored by the 24 participants of the 2003 Howard Hughes Medical Institute meeting. They defined open access as follows:

"An Open Access Publication is one that meets the following two conditions: 

1. The author(s) and copyright holder(s) grant(s) to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, transmit and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works, in any digital medium for any responsible purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship, as well as the right to make small numbers of printed copies for their personal use.
2. A complete version of the work and all supplemental materials, including a copy of the permission as stated above, in a suitable standard electronic format is deposited immediately upon initial publication in at least one online repository that is supported by an academic institution, scholarly society, government agency, or other well-established organization that seeks to enable open access, unrestricted distribution, interoperability, and long-term archiving (for the biomedical sciences, PubMed Central is such a repository)."

(https://legacy.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/bethesda.htm)

The Bethesda Statement is based on the BOAI and explains how users should implement Open Access in practice. Unlike the BOAI, it explicitly calls for unlimited derivative use and licenses for Open Access publications. Another key difference from the BOAI is the access model for publications: According to the Bethesda Statement, publications — whether Gold or Green Open Access — must be deposited in repositories to be considered open access.

Berlin Declaration on Open Access

The Berlin Declaration was adopted at a conference in Berlin in 2003, organised by the Max Planck Society. The 19 founding members were german and international research organisations. The Berlin Declaration on Open Access builds on earlier definitions of open access, adopting some verbatim:

"Open access contributions must satisfy two conditions: The author(s) and right holder(s) of such contributions grant(s) to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, transmit and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works, in any digital medium for any responsible purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship (community standards, will continue to provide the mechanism for enforcement of proper attribution and responsible use of the published work, as they do now), as well as the right to make small numbers of printed copies for their personal use.

A complete version of the work and all supplemental materials, including a copy of the permission as stated above, in an appropriate standard electronic format is deposited (and thus published) in at least one online repository using suitable technical standards (such as the Open Archive definitions) that is supported and maintained by an academic institution, scholarly society, government agency, or other well-established organization that seeks to enable open access, unrestricted distribution, interoperability, and long-term archiving." (https://openaccess.mpg.de/Berliner-Erklaerung)

In contrast to the BOAI and the Bethesda Statement, the Berlin Declaration includes cultural heritage (cultural assets held in archives, libraries and museums) and also considers research and metadata.

Similarities and differences

Although the three definitions differ slightly from one another, they share the same basic features. Firstly, they advocate free access to scientific publications for anyone with an internet connection. Secondly, they permit free use for all legally and ethically acceptable purposes.

However, the declarations differ in terms of which publications are considered open access. While Berlin includes research and metadata, Budapest and Bethesda only include scientific publications. This is because both statements only refer to 'literature', 'articles' or 'work'. The BOAI and Bethesda statements also explicitly exclude embargo periods. For publication in a paid medium, Open Access must be simultaneous for it to be recognised as such. BOAI also excludes preprint versions without peer review.

Conclusion - The development of Open Access

Looking at the three declarations in chronological order, we can see how the definition of Open Access has developed. The term gradually expanded from the Budapest Initiative to the Bethesda Statement and the Berlin Declaration.

The first declaration, BOAI, still restricts open access preprints, as it only includes articles that will undergo peer review in the future. Neither the Bethesda nor the Berlin declarations impose such a restriction. Both include unlimited derivative use for Open Access publications, whereas BOAI does not yet mention such use. Finally, the Berlin Declaration — the most recent of the three — extends the term to cultural heritage and the metadata of research results. Unlike the BOAI and Bethesda declarations, it also refrains from excluding embargo periods.

The Berlin Declaration on Open Access can therefore be seen as the (at least provisional) end point of a development towards a more inclusive definition of Open Access.

Links

Budapest Open Access Initiative: https://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read

Bethesda Statement of Open Access Publishing: https://legacy.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/bethesda.htm

Berlin Declaration on Open Access: https://openaccess.mpg.de/Berliner-Erklaerung