An open access journal is a scholarly journal that provides free and unrestricted access to its content. Open access journals are available online and apply permissive reuse licences to the articles they publish. These journals may or may not charge submitting authors, based on their business model.

Open access journals are scholarly publications that are made freely available online to anyone with an internet connection. They provide a platform for researchers to share their findings and discoveries with the world, without any financial or legal barriers. Most often, open access articles make use of Creative Commons licences.

Open access journals are typically peer-reviewed and published in a range of disciplines, from the life sciences to the humanities. They may be fully free to both authors and readers (diamond open access journals) or free to readers upon the payment of an article processing charge by the author, their institution or funder (gold open access journals). By making research freely available, open access journals help to ensure that knowledge is shared and disseminated widely.

Alongside fully open access journals, there are other forms of open access that make this landscape somewhat difficult to navigate. These are summarised in the table below, alongside some key features and whether the route can be considered as an open access journal:

One type of Open Access,, Diamond Open Access, is heavily promoted in Europe and in Latin America..Diamond OA is an equitable model of scholarly publication that charges no fees to authors or readers and in which the content-related elements of publication are owned and controlled by the scholarly communities. Where Gold Open Access often still creates new barriers in terms of access, Diamond Open Access offers better opportunities for matching the principles of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in scholarly publications.