What is the difference between open access and subscription-based scholarly publishing?

• A. Open access requires authors to pay upfront fees, while subscription-based is free for readers.
• B. Open access restricts access to affiliated institutions only; subscription-based allows universal access.
• C. Open access requires authors to transfer copyright to the publisher.
• D. Open access makes research freely available to the public; subscription-based restricts access to paying subscribers or institutions.

Answer: (D)

Open access is about who can read and reuse a scholarly article. The defining feature is that open access makes the article freely available to anyone online without a paywall, letting readers around the world access, and often reuse, the work under a permissive license. In contrast, subscription-based publishing keeps many articles behind a paywall, so access is limited to paying subscribers or institutions that license the content.

You might hear that OA always charges authors upfront, but that's not universal—some OA journals do charge article processing fees, while others do not, and there are models like diamond or platinum OA that aim to remove author fees altogether. OA also doesn’t automatically require authors to transfer copyright; authors may retain rights or publish under licenses that grant reuse, depending on the journal. And OA is not about restricting access to affiliated institutions; it’s specifically about broad, often universal access.