Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI)

The Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI), launched in 2002, is a global effort to promote free and unrestricted access to scholarly research online. It advocates for making academic articles freely available to the public without paywalls, encouraging wider dissemination of knowledge, accelerating scientific progress, and enhancing education. The initiative emphasizes open access as a way to democratize information, allowing researchers, students, and the general public to read and benefit from scientific findings without financial barriers. BOAI has been influential in shaping policies and practices toward more open and accessible scholarly communication worldwide.