As stated in the Budapest Open Access Initiative, there are many advantages to Open Access.
- As more people can access scientific literature, research is enhanced and accelerated: collaboration between researchers increases and duplication of research results is reduced. Contrary to what one might think, Open Access reduces the possibility of plagiarism, as the contents of the research work are open and therefore more easily monitored.
- Because Open Access makes scientific knowledge visible to society, people outside the scientific community can make their own contribution to science itself by being involved in scientific initiatives: this possibility is called citizen science.
- Open Access augments visibility of researchers’ work and, therefore, citation to their work, the so-called Open Access Citation Advantage, which has been investigated in several studies throughout the years.
- Open Access allows research results to be disseminated within the scientific community and beyond.
- Open Access is required by international and national funders. The funding program Horizon Europe, for example, states that immediate and free access to funded research products must be provided.
Source: Open-access.network: What is open access?
