What’s at issue?

OA2020 aims for open access through shifting funds.

In response to the need for reduced barriers in accessing and reusing knowledge, and the untenably rising costs of subscription journals, 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. It does not prescribe a particular model for the flipping, since that can vary by institution. Indeed, OA2020 leaves it up to institutions to define for themselves how they will repurpose their funds

To facilitate this transition, institutions and scholarly organizations interested in participating 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.

What does it mean to sign the EoI?

Signatories to the EoI express agreement upon three aims:

1. Transforming a majority of today’s scholarly journals from subscription to OA publishing in accordance with community-specific publication preferences.
2. Pursuing this transformation process by converting resources currently spent on journal subscriptions into funds to support sustainable OA business models.
3. 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 OA aims.