Open access offers free and unrestricted access through the internet to the primary literature published within scholarly journals. This literature is given to the world by scholars without expectation of payment and in the hope that it is distributed and read as widely as possible. Making it freely available immediately distributes it to the billion people worldwide who have internet access. Giving all interested readers access will accelerate research, enrich education, share learning among rich and poor nations, and, ultimately, enhance return on investment in research (much of which come from the world’s taxpayers). From being in a position where institutions cannot supply all the information needs of researchers, researchers will be able to access all of the relevant information they need to be effective.

Open access also provides major benefits for authors. Rather than their paper being seen by readers at the few hundred institutions lucky enough to have a subscription to the journal, the paper can now be seen by all interested readers. This increases the dissemination and impact of the papers and so raises the profile of the authors and their institutions.

To achieve open access to scholarly journal literature, The Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) recommends two complementary strategies.

• I. Self-Archiving: Scholars should deposit their refereed journal articles in open electronic archives (repositories) which conform to Open Archives Initiative (OAI) standards. A listing of open repositories containing peer-reviewed academic content is maintained by the Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR), supported by SPARC Europe

  II. Open-access Journals: Journals should place no copyright or financial barriers between readers and the research. Journal articles should be free to all interested readers over the internet and publishers should look to sources other than subscriptions to fund peer-review and other legitimate publishing costs. A useful list of open access journals, a resource supported by SPARC Europe, is provided by the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).

There is growing international momentum in favour of self-archiving and open access journals. Increasing numbers of libraries are taking on the role of hosts for institutional repositories, becoming responsible for maintaining the intellectual heritage of their institution. The success of growing numbers of open access journals is proving the feasibility of the new business models. Evidence is accumulating to show the dissemination and impact benefits impact of open access and as success is proved, more authors, university administrators, librarians, and funding bodies are becoming aware of the limitations of the current system and possibilities of the new models.