Are there different kinds of open access?¹

There are typically two forms of open access. Open access definitions suffer from a lack of standardisation within the community, but these types are generally understood to be:

• Gratis open access: the practice of making a work available online free of charge.
• Libre open access: the practice of making a work available online free of charge and with some additional reuse rights, typically granted through a Creative Commons license

Gratis open access removes price barriers, whereas libre open access additionally removes at least some permission barriers, allowing users to copy, redistribute, and/or adapt a work.

The following toolkit article(s) address(es) this question:

What is Open Access?