Open Access is about the free access of publicly funded research, i.e. free access to read and use academic literature, including the possibility of unrestricted downloads from academic publications.

With Open Access, all interested parties will have ready access to published research. Access will not be dependent, as is often the case in the current publishing system, on whether you have personally (or via your library) subscribed to a particular journal.

Open Access has no influence on the quality assurances that form part of the publishing process (peer review).

With Open Access (OA), there are basically two models to follow: 'the green model' and 'the golden model'.