Open access refers to the practice of making academic research, scholarly articles, and other types of content freely available online, without any financial or other barriers that would prevent people from accessing it. Open access content is typically published under a license that allows others to freely use, share, and build upon the content, often with attribution to the original author or creator.

There are several benefits to open access content. For one, it helps to democratize access to knowledge and information, making it more accessible to people around the world who may not have the resources to pay for access to academic journals or other research publications. Additionally, open access content can help to accelerate the pace of scientific discovery, by allowing researchers to more easily build upon the work of others and collaborate across disciplines and geographic regions.

There are different models of open access, including "gold" open access, which involves publishing content in open access journals, and "green" open access, which involves depositing content in open access repositories or archives. There are also various initiatives and organizations that promote open access, including the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI).