Open Access

Here are some important steps that marked the history of Open Access.

• 1998 – The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), an international alliance of academic and research libraries, began its journey to promote Open Access.
• 2002 - Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) sanctioned the birth of the Open Access movement and stated Open Access definition and its roads.
• 2003 – In the same year, the Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing and the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities, two fundamental documents about Open Access, were published.
• 2004 - Most of the Italian universities joined the Berlin Declaration by signing the Messina Declaration.
• 2018 – Plan S, an initiative aimed at promoting Open Access publishing, was launched by a coalition of funding institutions.
• 2022 – 20th anniversary of the BOAI. The guide to the new recommendations advocated adherence to the principles stated in the 2002 document while expressing the need to look at new developments in OA.
• 2024 - The Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information was published: signed by more than 40 institutions, it represents a document of commitment towards the opening of all research information.