Open Access in the crosshairs

Abstract

Many years have passed since the scholarly communication system has become increasingly challenged by a bunch of idealists or troublemakers, depending on the point of view. The pioneering Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) and Berlin Declaration officially started a world-wide movement, which quickly turned out to be more than a fad: namely to unlock publicly funded research outputs hitherto only accessible via (often obscenely expensive) journal subscriptions.
The traditional subscription-based model has definitely shown its age, and its thick walls have been continuously under fire for almost two decades now