There are two primary classifications of open access: Gold or Green
Further definitions below:
Sharing your research openly can be achieved in a number of ways. Any of these options support open access:
Find out how to work with publishers to retain your rights by using the SPARC addendum.
Open Access
The goal of Open Access is to digitally publish scholarly work making it easily accessible and free to use responsibly by the public. Authors retain control of the integrity of their work and the right to be properly cited and acknowledged. This way of publishing scholarly works looks to supplement or in some cases replace the current pay-for-access journals that limit access through price and permission barriers. Open Access hopes to restore the original intent of scholarly publication by removing these barriers and getting scholarly work seen and used by the most people possible.
Why open access?