Milestones in the History of Open Access

1991: "Birth" of Open Access by introducing the publication server ArXiv where research results from physics can be published before the quality assurance procedures are completed (preprints).

Mid-1990s: After a few commercial science publishers had consolidated themselves by taking over independent journals on a massive scale, they used their market power to raise prices considerably. The "serials crisis" is a heavy financial burden for the libraries and brings the OA idea into focus as an attractive alternative to subscriptions.

2002: The Budapest Open Access Initiative is published and recognized internationally. It is followed by the Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing in 2003, and the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities, which was signed by 19 research organizations as the final document of a conference of the Max Planck Society. Since then, more and more research organizations are involved in numerous (international) projects to promote and implement OA. At the same time, the major science publishers start to establish controversial OA business models.

2018: A group of European research funders (CoalitionS) drafts Plan S with the support of the EU Commission, according to which, from 2021 on, all research results funded by the participating funding agencies must be published Open Access directly.

Open Access in Austria

2012: Foundation of the Open Access Network Austria (OANA),

2014-2019: Project e-infrastructures Austria (with the participation of mdw) and follow-up project e-Infrastructures Austria Plus for the coordinated development of a repository infrastructure and for the further development of research support services,

2016: Recommendations for the Transition to Open Access in Austria by OANA,

2017-2020: Projekt Austrian Transition to Open Access (AT2OA) which promotes the development of strategies for Austrian research institutions in view of diverse OA business models and transition scenarios.

Further Information

can be found on the central OA information portal for German-speaking countries.

 

Open Access Support

For advice, please turn to Max Bergmann:
Tel. +43-1-71155-8122

General questions
bergmann-max@mdw.ac.at

mdwPress
mdwpress@mdw.ac.at

pub.mdw
pub@mdw.ac.at