Open access
Also called: OA
Research literature that is free to read online, and usually free to reuse under an open licence.
Open access removes the paywall. Its stronger forms also remove permission barriers, licensing the work under Creative Commons so it can be redistributed, mined, and translated. “Free to read” and “free to reuse” are different claims, and the licence is where the difference lives.
Being open access says nothing about quality. There are excellent open journals and predatory ones, just as there are excellent and weak subscription journals. Judge the journal, not the business model.
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See also
Gold open accessOpen access provided by the journal itself at publication, typically funded by an article processing charge.Green open accessOpen access achieved by depositing a copy in a repository, usually the accepted manuscript rather than the publisher's PDF.Creative Commons licenceA family of standard licences by which a rightsholder grants reuse rights in advance, on stated conditions.Predatory journalA journal that charges publication fees while providing little or no genuine peer review or editorial service.