An old tradition and a new technology have converged to make possible an unprecedented public good. The old tradition is the willingness of scientists and scholars to publish the fruits of their research in scholarly journals without payment, for the sake of inquiry and knowledge. The new technology is the internet. The public good they make possible is the world-wide electronic distribution of the peer-reviewed journal literature and completely free and unrestricted access to it by all scientists, scholars, teachers, students, and other curious minds. Removing access barriers to this literature will accelerate research, enrich education, share the learning of the rich with the poor and the poor with the rich, make this literature as useful as it can be, and lay the foundation for uniting humanity in a common intellectual conversation and quest for knowledge.

For various reasons, this kind of free and unrestricted online availability, which we will call open access, has so far been limited to small portions of the journal literature. But even in these limited collections, many different initiatives have shown that open access is economically feasible, that it gives readers extraordinary power to find and make use of relevant literature, and that it gives authors and their works vast and measurable new visibility, readership, and impact. To secure these benefits for all, we call on all interested institutions and individuals to help open up access to the rest of this literature and remove the barriers, especially the price barriers, that stand in the way. The more who join the effort to advance this cause, the sooner we will all enjoy the benefits of open access.

The literature that should be freely accessible online is that which scholars give to the world without expectation of payment. Primarily, this category encompasses their peer-reviewed journal articles, but it also includes any unreviewed preprints that they might wish to put online for comment or to alert colleagues to important research findings. There are many degrees and kinds of wider and easier access to this literature. By "open access" to this literature, we mean its free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself. The only constraint on reproduction and distribution, and the only role for copyright in this domain, should be to give authors control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited.

While  the peer-reviewed journal literature should be accessible online without cost to readers, it is not costless to produce. However, experiments show that the overall costs of providing open access to this literature are far lower than the costs of traditional forms of dissemination. With such an opportunity to save money and expand the scope of dissemination at the same time, there is today a strong incentive for professional associations, universities, libraries, foundations, and others to embrace open access as a means of advancing their missions. Achieving open access will require new cost recovery models and financing mechanisms, but the significantly lower overall cost of dissemination is a reason to be confident that the goal is attainable and not merely preferable or utopian.

To achieve open access to scholarly journal literature, we recommend two complementary strategies. 

I.  Self-Archiving: First, scholars need the tools and assistance to deposit their refereed journal articles in open electronic archives, a practice commonly called, self-archiving. When these archives conform to standards created by the Open Archives Initiative, then search engines and other tools can treat the separate archives as one. Users then need not know which archives exist or where they are located in order to find and make use of their contents.

II. Open-access Journals: Second, scholars need the means to launch a new generation of journals committed to open access, and to help existing journals that elect to make the transition to open access. Because journal articles should be disseminated as widely as possible, these new journals will no longer invoke copyright to restrict access to and use of the material they publish. Instead they will use copyright and other tools to ensure permanent open access to all the articles they publish. Because price is a barrier to access, these new journals will not charge subscription or access fees, and will turn to other methods for covering their expenses. There are many alternative sources of funds for this purpose, including the foundations and governments that fund research, the universities and laboratories that employ researchers, endowments set up by discipline or institution, friends of the cause of open access, profits from the sale of add-ons to the basic texts, funds freed up by the demise or cancellation of journals charging traditional subscription or access fees, or even contributions from the researchers themselves. There is no need to favor one of these solutions over the others for all disciplines or nations, and no need to stop looking for other, creative alternatives.

Open access to peer-reviewed journal literature is the goal. Self-archiving (I.) and a new generation of open-access journals (II.) are the ways to attain this goal. They are not only direct and effective means to this end, they are within the reach of scholars themselves, immediately, and need not wait on changes brought about by markets or legislation. While we endorse the two strategies just outlined, we also encourage experimentation with further ways to make the transition from the present methods of dissemination to open access. Flexibility, experimentation, and adaptation to local circumstances are the best ways to assure that progress in diverse settings will be rapid, secure, and long-lived.

The Open Society Institute, the foundation network founded by philanthropist George Soros, is committed to providing initial help and funding to realize this goal. It will use its resources and influence to extend and promote institutional self-archiving, to launch new open-access journals, and to help an open-access journal system become economically self-sustaining. While the Open Society Institute's commitment and resources are substantial, this initiative is very much in need of other organizations to lend their effort and resources.

We invite governments, universities, libraries, journal editors, publishers, foundations, learned societies, professional associations, and individual scholars who share our vision to join us in the task of removing the barriers to open access and building a future in which research and education in every part of the world are that much more free to flourish.

February 14, 2002
Budapest, Hungary

Leslie Chan: Bioline International
Darius Cuplinskas: Director, Information Program, Open Society Institute
Michael Eisen: Public Library of Science
Fred Friend: Director Scholarly Communication, University College London
Yana Genova: Next Page Foundation
Jean-Claude Guédon: University of Montreal
Melissa Hagemann: Program Officer, Information Program, Open Society Institute
Stevan Harnad: Professor of Cognitive Science, University of Southampton, Universite du Quebec a Montreal
Rick Johnson: Director, Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC)
Rima Kupryte: Open Society Institute
Manfredi La Manna: Electronic Society for Social Scientists 
István Rév: Open Society Institute, Open Society Archives
Monika Segbert: eIFL Project consultant 
Sidnei de Souza: Informatics Director at CRIA, Bioline International
Peter Suber: Professor of Philosophy, Earlham College & The Free Online Scholarship Newsletter
Jan Velterop: Publisher, BioMed Central

Indexing & Abstracting

ULAKBİM (Social Sciences Database)
EDNA (Education Network Australia)
NEWJOUR (Electronic Journals & Newsletters)
The Intute Social Sciences Database
Index Copernicus TM
EBSCO Education Research Complete™

Further indexing is in progress.

Reviewer Board

Bülent AKSOY Gazi Üniversitesi- TÜRKİYE    
Hana ČTRNÁCTOVÁ Charles University – CZECH REPUBLIC
Muallâ B. AKSU Akdeniz Üniversitesi - TÜRKİYE    
Jale ÇAKIROĞLU ODTÜ – TÜRKİYE
Yahya AKYÜZ Ankara Üniversitesi - TÜRKİYE    
Vehbi ÇELİK Fırat Üniversitesi – TÜRKİYE
Hüseyin ALKAN Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi - TÜRKİYE    
Aytekin ÇÖKELEZ Ondokuz Mayıs Üniversitesi – TÜRKİYE
Sadegül Akbaba ALTUN Başkent Üniversitesi - TÜRKİYE    
Bayram DEMİRCİ İnönü Üniversitesi – TÜRKİYE
Sebahattin ARIBAŞ İnönü Üniversitesi -TÜRKİYE   
Özcan DEMİREL Hacettepe Üniversitesi – TÜRKİYE
Battal ASLAN Hakkari Üniversitesi -TÜRKİYE    
Semire DİKLİ Georgia Gwinnett College – USA
İbrahim ATALAY Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi - TÜRKİYE    
Süleyman DOĞAN Ege Üniversitesi – TÜRKİYE
Ali BALCI Ankara Üniversitesi - TÜRKİYE    
Gazanfer DOĞU Bolu A.İ.B.Ü – TÜRKİYE
Hüseyin BAŞAR Hacettepe Üniversitesi - TÜRKİYE    
Burhanettin DÖNMEZ İnönü Üniversitesi - TÜRKİYE
Nevzat BATTAL İnönü Üniversitesi - TÜRKİYE    
Nevhiz ERCAN Gazi Üniversitesi – TÜRKİYE
Martin BILEK University of Hradec Králové – CZECH REPUBLIC    
Ş. Şule ERÇETİN Hacettepe Üniversitesi – TÜRKİYE
İclal ERGENÇ Ankara Üniversitesi – TÜRKİYE
Gürhan CAN Anadolu Üniversitesi - TÜRKİYE    
Mustafa ERGÜN Kocatepe Üniversitesi – TÜRKİYE
Cevat CELEP Kocaeli Üniversitesi – TÜRKİYE    
Philip C. van der ESTHUIZEN North-West University –SOUTH AFRICA
Hikmet Yıldırım CELKAN Gaziantep Üniversitesi– TÜRKİYE    
Dianne FORBES The University of Waikato –NEW ZEALAND
Tak Cheung CHAN Kennesaw State University – USA    
Mehmet GÜNAY Gazi Üniversitesi – TÜRKİYE
Ronald J. CHENAIL Nova Southeastern University – USA    
Thienhuong HOANG California State Polytechnic University-USA
Simon CLARKE University of Western Australia, AUSTRALIA    
Elif Tekin İFTAR Anadolu Üniversitesi –TÜRKİYE
Mira KARNIELI Oranim Teachers’ College – ISRAEL    
Ragıp ÖZYÜREK Çukurova Üniversitesi -TÜRKİYE
Mehmet Durdu KARSLI ÇOMÜ – TÜRKİYE    
Paul J. PACE University of Malta, MALTA
Cahit KAVCAR Ankara Üniversitesi – TÜRKİYE    
Ahmet SABAN Selçuk Üniversitesi-TÜRKİYE
Alim KAYA Uluslararası Kıbrıs Üniversitesi - KKTC   

Demetrios G. SAMPSON University of Piraeus - GREECE
Mustafa KILIÇ İnönü Üniversitesi – TÜRKİYE    
Ed SMEETS Radboud University - NETHERLANDS
Remzi Y.KINCAL ÇOMÜ- TÜRKİYE    
Veysel SÖNMEZ Hacettepe Üniversitesi - TÜRKİYE
Nizamettin KOÇ Ankara Üniversitesi – TÜRKİYE    
Ömer Faruk ŞİMŞEK İzmir Ekonomi Üniversitesi-TÜRKİYE
Fidan KORKUT Hacettepe Üniversitesi - TÜRKİYE    
Mehmet ŞİŞMAN Eskişehir Osmangazi Üniversitesi -TÜRKİYE
Mustafa KUTLU İnönü Üniversitesi - TÜRKİYE    
Songül TAŞ İnönü Üniversitesi - TÜRKİYE
Peter LITCHKA Lyola University – USA    
Ömer Faruk TEMİZER İnönü Üniversitesi - TÜRKİYE
Stewart MARSHALL The University of the West Indies – BARBADOS    
Ceren TEKKAYA ODTÜ-TÜRKİYE
Feridun MERTER İnönü Üniversitesi - TÜRKİYE    
Ata TEZBAŞARAN Mersin Üniversitesi - TÜRKİYE
Semra MİRİCİ Akdeniz Üniversitesi - TÜRKİYE    
Belma TUĞRUL Hacettepe Üniversitesi - TÜRKİYE
Ferhan ODABAŞI Anadolu Üniversitesi- TÜRKİYE   
Selahattin TURAN Eskişehir Osmangazi Üniversitesi -TÜRKİYE
Zuhal OKAN Çukurova Üniversitesi - TÜRKİYE    
Sibel TÜRKÜM Anadolu Üniversitesi -TÜRKİYE
Selahattin ÖGÜLMÜŞ Ankara Üniversitesi – TÜRKİYE    
Cemil YÜCEL Uşak Üniversitesi-TÜRKİYE
Servet ÖZDEMİR Gazi Üniversitesi– TÜRKİYE    
Helen WILDY University of Western Australia - AUSTRALIA
Kadir BEYCİOĞLU Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi - TÜRKİYE
A. Sumru ÖZSOY Boğaziçi Üniversitesi - TÜRKİYE    
Hasan DEMİRTAŞ İnönü Üniversitesi - TÜRKİYE
Mehmet ÜSTÜNER İnönü Üniversitesi - TÜRKİYE    Oğuz GÜRBÜZTÜRK İnönü Üniversitesi - TÜRKİYE
Eyüp İZCİ İnönü Üniversitesi - TÜRKİYE    
Hasan AYDEMİRİnönü Üniversitesi - TÜRKİYE

Frequency of publishing

Three times a year (April, August and December)

Policy of screening for plagiarism

Papers submitted to INUEFD will be screened for plagiarism using iThenticate plagiarism detection tools. INUEFD will immediately reject papers leading to plagiarism or self-plagiarism.

Submission fee

There is no author’s submission fee or other publication related fee since every cost for the publication process is supported by the publisher; therefore it is an open access journal.

İnönü Üniversitesi, Eğitim Fakültesi tarafından hazırlanan bu eser Creative Commons Alıntı-Gayriticari 4.0 Uluslararası Lisansı ile lisanslanmıştır.