International Open Access meeting
The ninth installment in the Berlin Open Access Conference Series, which convenes leaders in the science, humanities, research, funding, and policy communities around The Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities, will take place at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute on November 9 & 10, 2011. The conference, called “Berlin 9 Open Access Conference: The impact of Open Access in research and scholarship,” will focus on the role that open online access can play in accelerating the conduct and communication of scholarship, and the opportunities this presents to the funders, creators, and end users of this information.
The Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities, issued in 2003 by international research, scientific, and cultural institutions, promotes the Internet as a medium for disseminating global knowledge. It has been signed by the leaders of nearly 300 research institutions, libraries, archives, museums, funding agencies, and governments from around the world. Signatories include the Max Planck Society (co-initiator and custodian of the declaration), CERN, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Academia Europea, Harvard University, and the International Federation of Library Associations.
The Berlin Open Access Conference Series supports the continued adoption and realization of the principles of the declaration and has been hosted in Germany, Switzerland, England, Italy, France, and – most recently – China. Berlin 9 will mark the first such meeting to take place in North America. The program will feature concrete steps taken by a variety of stakeholders to support Open Access and invite participants to consider added actions that might be taken – including encouraging signatures to the Berlin Declaration.
Berlin 9 is being organized by representatives from the science, humanities, research, funding and policy communities, including the Marine Biological Laboratory, and will be held on the campus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, in Chevy Chase, MD. Conference planning is being coordinated by the Max Planck Society and SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition).
