ERCIM Statement on Open Access

Recognising the inability of research libraries to meet the costs of sustaining their collections, and participating actively in the development of appropriate technology, ERCIM has followed with interest the developments in Open Access from the Budapest Declaration through the Bethesda Declaration to the Berlin Declaration and events since. ERCIM member organisations have been involved in dialogue with national libraries, research funding agencies, commercial publishers, learned societies and government departments. ERCIM supports the following principles:

• research that is funded by the public via government agencies or charities should be available freely, electronically at the point of use
• other research should be made equally available subject only to confidentiality required by commercial, military, security or personal medical constraints
• quality assurance of research publications must be continued through rigorous peer review
• associated with research publications, research datasets and software should be equally openly available
• the provision of open access should be made as cost-effective as possible
• the provision of open access carries also the responsibility for curation of the digital material including cataloguing, archiving, reproducing, safekeeping and media migration.

ERCIM has for many years made available digitally its publications and other materials. ERCIM pioneered a pilot project demonstrating homogeneous access to heterogeneous technical reports. ERCIM has many years experience in the technology through the DELOS projects and Network of Excellence (http://www.delos.info), and is at the leading edge integrating appropriate open access technology with GRIDs via the DILIGENT project (http://www.diligentproject.org). Individual ERCIM organisations have researched many aspects of the technology required for open access.

It is now agreed that the member organisations of ERCIM which do not already have an open access policy will adopt these principles and implement them.