“Open access (OA) means making research publications freely available so anyone can benefit from reading and using research. Open access can be more than making research available to read, but also allowing others to re-use that research.”

JISC (2019) An introduction to open access. https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/an-introduction-to-open-access (Accessed: 5th November 2021).

Most research is funded by public money, and therefore it should be publicly available. Yet, most people do not have access to the majority of research. Open access can change this.  

Background to the open access movement

This video explains the background to the open access movement, why open access is needed and how the movement has developed over time.