Open Access

Open Access is a new way of scientific publishing, as opposed to the traditional way through scientific journals with limited (paid) access. Its aim is to make information freely and without charge available to anyone who is interested. 

The advantages of Open Access include unrestricted access to peer-reviewed literature, faster sharing of information. 

There are several publishing models: 

• Green way 
• Gold way

Green Open Access

The Green Way model is based on making scholarly texts available, mainly through preprints and postprints, by depositing them in an open repository. The author ensures open access with respect to the rights of the work. 

Nowadays, many publishers allow uploading to institutional or subject repositories (so-called self-archiving). Often this is done with preprints (these texts have not yet been peer-reviewed) or postprints (these texts have already been peer-reviewed, but do not have the graphical layout of the publishing journal). This green way often publishes scientific papers with a delay of several months (usually 6, 12 or 24 months), with a so-called embargo. 

Example of a subject repository - arXiv

Gold Open Access

The Gold Way model means publishing a text in an open access journal. Access to the article is then provided by the publisher. The end user bears no financial burden. The financial burden is borne by the author or the institution that pays the so-called APC fees. 

However, many journals do not publish in a purely "gold way", they resort to a so-called hybrid approach. That is, the author pays for some texts and the text is freely accessible (often labelled as an Open Access article). The remaining texts in the journal are subject to a fee.