Open Access is an international movement that seeks to grant free and open online access to academic information, such as publications and data. A publication is defined Open Access when there are no financial, legal or technical barriers to accessing it – that is to say when anyone can read, download, copy, distribute, print, search for and search within the information, or use it in education or in any other way within the legal agreements. 

Open Access is a publishing model for scholarly communication that makes research information available to readers at no cost, as opposed to the traditional subscription model in which readers have access to scholarly information by paying a subscription (usually via libraries). 

Open Access has several advantages, to mention some:

• enhanced visibility of our researchers and faculty as a whole; 
• reusable data and research output, for colleagues as well as educational purposes;
• free access to scientific knowledge for society as a whole: governmental organizations, professionals and civilians.

There are different ways of publishing Open Access. Read more about the options on the website openaccess.nl. 

• The majority of open access journal titles are listed in the  Directory of Open Access (9.400 journals).
• De Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) refers to Open Access books on the websites of the publishers. These are peer reviewed books published under an open licence (mostly CC licences), 

The university library has also dedicated a page to Open Access publishing.