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BOAI
A short guide to the players, stakeholders
and technical terms relevant to
Open Access publishing, "WHAT, WHO and WHY?" keeps readers
informed about the world of Open
Access.
What is BOAI?
The Budapest Open Access Initiative
(BOAI) is a movement that aims to
speed progress in making research
articles from all academic fields freely
available on the Internet. BOAI is not
a publisher, and is equally supportive
of self-archiving and Open Access
journals. BOAI was launched in February 2002
as a result of a meeting in Budapest
organized by the Open Society Institute.
The meeting attendees co-signed a declaration
that now invites signatures
from individuals and organizations who
wish to pledge their support. It asks signatories
- including editors, publishers,
librarians, researchers and many others
- to join the effort to ensure a transition
to Open Access publishing.
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Who is behind BOAI?
The Budapest meeting was attended by
a number of the key players in the
Open Access movement. Since then,
almost 3,000 individuals and over 200
organizations have added their support.
Notably, BOAI is supported by the
Open Society Institute (OSI), a private
foundation established in 1993 by philanthropist George Soros. OSI is dedicated
to building open societies worldwide
and has committed funding of
US$1 million a year from 2002 to 2005
in support of Open Access projects.
Why does BOAI exist?
The aim of the Budapest meeting was to
explore how the various ongoing initiatives
to free research from the constraints
of traditional publishing could work
together, and how OSI and other organizations
could most effectively and affordably
use their resources to ensure the success
of the Open Access movement.
Now, BOAI invites "the signatures, support,
and participation of the entire world
scientific and scholarly community."
www.soros.org/openaccess
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