National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN), Italy, has signed the Berlin Declaration on 'Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities' to help break down hurdles for accessing scientific knowledge.
The declaration, launched in 2003, was created to sustain and encourage the free exchange of scientific publications and research results through the principles of open access. In signing the Berlin Declaration, the participating institutions commit themselves to promote the Internet as a tool for developing scientific knowledge and to recognise the worldwide strategic role of open access. It is thus necessary to be able to rely on the collaboration of European researchers.
Encouraging scientific researchers to publish on the web and cultural institutions to make their resources available by creating open archives are fundamental prerequisites for the successful promotion of this new approach to the dissemination of scientific knowledge. It will also be necessary to develop new means of evaluating the scientific literature in accordance with current standards of quality and to ensure that open access publications be recognised in job competitions and career advancement.
