Open Access Colors: An Opinionated Guide | The GW Open Source Program Office | The George Washington University

"A central academic norm is the idea that knowledge should be free and accessible to all. Yet much of the academic literature is still held behind paywalls placed by commercial publishing houses. The open-access movement was born as a reaction to this state of affairs. At a meeting held December 2001 in Budapest, a diverse group of people including researchers, librarians, publishers, and others, launched the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI). Its goal was to define principles for free access to research articles on the internet across all academic fields. More than 20 years later, what is the landscape of open access? [...]"