Thirty-two Italian university rectors and other delegates to a recent conference (Messina, November 4-5, 2004) have released the Messina Declaration on Open Access, in Italian and English. Excerpts from the English edition:
Whereas a global dissemination of scientific knowledge has a fundamental importance for the cultural and economic progress of society; [...]
Whereas a growing number of international initiatives have identified "open access" to scholarly literature as the basic dissemination tool for cultural heritage and research output; [...]
The group has also issued a press release, but so far only in Italian. An English version will appear shortly, but in the meantime see Susanna Mornati's SOAF posting on the event (in English). For more background, see our blog posting from November 6.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 11/10/2004 11:15:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
