Merits and Demerits of Open Access Publishing

Abstract

This article discusses the merits and demerits of open access (OA) publishing. It highlights various aspects of this emerging mode of scholarly publishing, including the OA nature, types, growth and impact. The article also highlights the implication of OA publishing for copyright issues and how creative commons licenses are used to deal with this issue. The focus of the article is to outline and discuss the different advantages and benefits of open access publishing, and how authors and researchers can benefit from publishing their intellectual works via OA channels.