Open Access (OA) stands for unrestricted access and unrestricted reuse. Here’s why that matters.
Most publishers own the rights to the articles in their journals. Anyone who wants to read the articles must pay to access them. Anyone who wants to use the articles in any way must obtain permission from the publisher and is often required to pay an additional fee.
Excerpt from Public Library of Science (PLOS) http://www.plos.org/open-access/.
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