On behalf of their respective organizations, professor Lu Yongxiang, president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and prof. Chen Yiyu, president of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), signed the Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities at the celebrations of the 30-year cooperation between CAS and Max Planck Society (MPS) on May 24 in Beijing.

　　Dubbed Berlin Declaration, the statement was first signed by MPS President Peter Gruss and representatives of other major German and European science organizations at an ad hoc symposium held at the Berlin Free University on October 22, 2003.

　　The Berlin Declaration states that, "Establishing open access as a worthwhile procedure ideally requires the active commitment of each and every individual producer of scientific knowledge and holder of cultural heritage". Open access contributions include original scientific research results, raw and metadata as well as source materials and digital representations of pictorial and graphical materials. The authors and right holders grant to all users a free, irrevocable, and universal right of access to these contributions and allow their work to be used, reproduced, or disseminated in digital form (provided correct attribution of authorship or copyright owner is given). Together with supplemental materials and the declaration of the right of use, the complete version of the work is to be made accessible in at least one electronic online archive. Such an archive can be maintained by academic institutions and federal or private organizations that subscribe to the principles of open access to and long-term archiving of publication material.

　　In signing the Declaration, the research organizations advocate consistently using the Internet for scientific communication and publishing. Their recommendations in favor of open access are directed not only at research institutions but also and to the same extent at cultural institutes such as libraries, archives, and museums.