What is OA2020?

In response to untenably rising costs of subscription journals, and the need for reduced barriers in accessing and reusing knowledge, Max Planck Digital Library is coordinating OA2020 as an international effort to convert the existing corpus of scholarly journals from subscription-based (“paywall”) to open access (“OA”).

The OA2020 movement intends to accomplish this “flipping” by encouraging institutions to convert resources currently spent on journal subscriptions into funds that support sustainable OA business models.

Institutions and scholarly organizations interested in participating in this effort sign an Expression of Interest (“EoI”).  Accompanying the EoI is a suggested Roadmap that signatories might consider or follow to help implement the changes envisioned by the EoI.  The Roadmap is a living document—entirely modifiable, and non-binding, and Max Planck Digital Library encourages institutions to make “local” versions that better reflect pragmatic considerations reflective of their campus or organizational needs.

To what will signing the EoI bind an institution?

Signatories to the EoI express agreement upon three aims:

• Transforming a majority of today’s scholarly journals from subscription to OA publishing in accordance with community-specific publication preferences.
• Pursuing this transformation process by converting resources currently spent on journal subscriptions into funds to support sustainable OA business models.
• Inviting all parties involved in scholarly publishing, in particular universities, research institutions, funders, libraries, and publishers to collaborate on a swift and efficient transition for the benefit of scholarship and society at large.

When an institution commits to signing the EoI, it agrees to make a good faith effort to devise and implement practical strategies and actions for attaining these aims.