ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Timeline of the open access movement

Okay kiddo, let me explain the timeline of the open access movement to you.
Long ago, before the internet, researchers would write papers and journals about their scientific discoveries, but these papers were usually available only to those who could afford to pay for them.
In the 1990s, a few scientists and librarians had the idea that sharing knowledge for free could lead to faster and greater scientific progress.
This idea gave birth to the open access movement, which aimed to make all scientific research papers available to everyone, regardless of their financial situation.
In 2001, the first open access journal, PLoS Biology, was launched.
More journals followed, some traditional ones even began to offer open access options.
In 2002, Budapest Open Access Initiative was launched, which helped draw attention to the issue and establish guidelines for open access.
In 2008, the National Institutes of Health in the US mandated that all research it funded must be made openly available within a year of publication.
This move was significant as it demonstrated the potential for open access to become more widespread.
Since then, other funding organizations have followed suit.
Nowadays, several nations, including the UK and France, have policies that encourage researchers to publish their work openly, and many academic institutions and libraries have established repositories where researchers can make their work open access.
So, the open access movement is still growing and its impact is continuing to be felt today.