Divest of subscriptions, invest in Open Access!

Open in order to innovate!

To celebrate Open Access week 2017, the international OA2020 initiative has launched newly expanded website, OA2020.org, where libraries and institutions can find practical information, best practice and resources to plan and execute their own transformational roadmaps that address local needs and have impact in the drive for Open Access at a global scale.

The key to achieving tha large scale transformation of the current scholarly publishing (subscription) system is by "converting resources currently spent on journal subscriptions into funds to support sustainable OA business models". The OA2020 Expression of Interest goes on to clarify that the envisioned transformation shall be made "in accordance with community-specific publications preferences" while continuing "to support new and improved forms of OA publishing".

One bold manifestation of these principles can be found in Germany, where nearly 200 institutions have announced that, pending positive results of the ongoing DEAL negotiations to incorporate open access publishing entitlements into a national content license agreement, they will not extend their current licenses with Elsevier; consequently, the local OA2020 coordinating body for Germany proposes that the funds saved on non-renewal with Elsevier be diverted to sustaining OA publishing initiatives.

Prof. Gerard Meijer, Director at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society and co-chair of the OA2020 initiative says: "With the relaunch of its new website, the OA2020 initiative renews its invitation to the many voices within the global academic and research communities to partner with us in transformative, coordinated actions to liberate scholarly communications from the subscription system and propel the open access movement forward."

The National Science Library, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has become the first institution in China to join the global Open Access 2020 Initiative with Director Huizhou Liu formalizing the endorsement by signing the OA2020 Expression of Interest on the occasion of Open Access  Week 2017. OA2020 is honoured by the participation of such a significant player in the global research community and leader of the Chinese academy.