Open Access (OA) offers cross cutting benefits to all people in the community:
Manuscripts are rigorously peer reviewed with a good number of journals listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).
Works under open access licenses can be re-used in various ways as per the adopted Creative Commons Attribution license.
Publications can reach a wider audience as most publishers do not impose access cost on the reader.
OA offers a platform for creators to be visible as more people can access the materials.
Due to no access restrictions imposed on the materials, they tend to have much bigger impact and citations in comparison to those on subscription-only.
Useful links
According to the Budapest Open Access Initiative (2012: np.), open access refers to the free availability of scholarly output on the public Internet domain permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these materials, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers. The open access movement advocates for provision of free and full access to research output to the public at large through encouraging publishing in open access journals and uploading research output onto open access institutional repositories.
Creative Commons Kiwi by Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand (CC BY) license. The video was made with support from InternetNZ and is a project of the Royal Society of New Zealand. Produced by Mohawk Media.
Creative Commons (CC) licenses offer a standardized way for all creators (individuals or institutions) to allow the public permission to use their creative work under copyright law. There are six different CC licenses which are intended to give creators a range of options. Deciding on which license to use should be guided by the intentions for sharing such work and how users will benefit from it.
CC BY : Under this license, the users can copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and duly give appropriate credit to the creators of such material. The license allows for commercial use.
CC BY-SA: The license allows for distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format and appropriately give credit to the creator. If the user makes any modifications or additions to the material, the contributions should be distributed under the same conditions as the original. The license allows for commercial use as well.
CC BY-NC: The license allows for distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format for non-commercial use only and appropriately give credit to the creator.
CC BY-NC-SA: The license allows for distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format for non-commercial use only and appropriately give credit to the creator. Any modifications or additions to the material, the contributions should be distributed under the same conditions as the original.
CC BY-ND: The license allows for commercial use and the users can copy and distribute the material in any medium or format and give credit to the creators. The license does not permit for derivatives or adaptations of the work.
CC BY-NC-ND: The license does not allows for commercial use and the users can copy and distribute the material in any medium or format and give credit to the creators. The license does not permit for derivatives or adaptations of the work.
Open Access Publishing Models
Gold Open Access
The works under Gold Open Access are published and made accessible through the publishers' website.
Full Open Access Journals
The publications are published in open access journals through the publisher platforms. Articles Processing Charges (APS) may be required which are covered by authors or by their institutions.
Hybrid Journals
Hybrid Journals are subscription based journals which allow open access publications on payment of Articles Processing Charges (APS).
Green route Open Access 
Green route Open Access is the practice of placing a version of an author's manuscript into a repository, making it freely accessible for everyone. The version that can be deposited into a repository is dependent on the funder or publisher.
Choose the right Journal for your research
Predatory publishers are sometimes referred to as deceptive or exploitative publishers. Their main motive is to make money and as such they;
How to Identify Predatory Publishers