Open Access information is digital information that is online, free of charge, and free, in varying degrees, of most copyright and licensing restrictions. Open Access resources typically permit users to download, copy, print, display, distribute, search, index, and link to the information.

Open Access resources remain the intellectual property of their creators, who have attribution rights as well as control over the integrity of their work, often through the use of Creative Commons licenses.

Publishing scholarly work in Open Access journals or depositing it in OA repositories can:

• Increase the visibility and impact of research by making it discoverable online

• Allow reuse of research and research data to prevent duplication of effort 

• Manage and document scholarly work to maintain integrity and save resources in the long term

• Allow students, other researchers, and the general public to access scholarship without expensive restrictions

• Allow libraries to acquire scholarly work without paying exorbitant subscription fees

• Help meet funding agency requirements (especially for federally-funded research)

For more information, see: 

• UNT Open Access Glossary: to understand some of the terms and concepts in open access. 

• Peter Suber, "Open Access Overview"--a well-known introduction to open access from one of the leading experts in the field.

• Why Open Research?: a website devoted to providing information and resources on open research and open access publication.

• OA Mythbusters: a series of short videos addressing common myths about open access

• SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) : works to enable the open sharing of research outputs and educational materials in order to democratize access to knowledge, accelerate discovery, and increase the return on our investment in research and education."

Articles on the impact of open scholarship:

Open Access explained by PHD Comics.