Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of cost or other access barriers. Through licensing via an open licence (usually a Creative Commons License), freely available outputs can also be legally shared and reused. Therefore, open access is more than just free access.
The original definitions of open access were first proposed in Budapest in 2002, Berlin in 2003 and Bethesda in 2003.
- Definition and information sourced from Open Access Australasia