Open Access can be defined as the practice of providing online access to scientific information which is free of charge to the end user and is also reusable. 'Scientific' refers to all academic disciplines.

Open Access enhances transparency and visibility of research, and ensures equal access to research on an international scale. Furthermore, Open Access significantly increases the impact of publications.

• Gold Open Access refers to the publishing of a peer-reviewed article in an academic journal which makes the article openly available on the publisher’s platform. A growing number of journals charge Article Processing Charges (APCs) for Open Access but there are still many Open Access journals which do not charge any APCs.
• Green Open Access refers to the depositing or self-archiving of a copy of the final version (or post-print) of a peer-reviewed article, regardless of the journal (Open Access or non-Open Access) where it is published. If the article is published in Open Access, the copy to be deposited can be the Accepted Author Manuscript (AAM) or Publisher Version (PV), including all the formatting.  For articles published in non-Open Access journals where no APC is paid, usually there will be an embargo period to Open Access set by the publisher.

Besides ensuring immediate visibility of scientific and research output, researchers can benefit from increased impact of their publications. As the publications are accessible without any restrictions or limitations, the entire research cycle is significantly accelerated which results in fostering collaboration with other institutions.

There are two ways how to do that:

• publishing the article in an Open Access journal (Gold Open Access)
• publishing the article in a non-Open Access journal that allows you to deposit the copy of your publication in the UM’s Institutional Repository - OAR@UM (Green Open Access) 

An Article Processing Charge (APC) is a fee which some journals charge authors to publish articles in open access. This fee may be covered by the research organisation or the researcher.

Publications can be placed in Open Access at no charge:

• if you publish in an Open Access journal that does not charge Article Processing Charges (APCs)
• if you publish in a non-Open Access journal that allows deposit of your research article in OAR@UM with an embargo period.

There is no impact, owing to the fact that research published in Gold Open Access or Green Open Access has gone through the peer review process.