  The current ways in which documents are made freely accessible in the Web no
longer adhere to the models established Budapest/Bethesda/Berlin (BBB)
definitions of Open Access (OA). Since those definitions were established,
OA-related terminology has expanded, trying to keep up with all the variants of
OA publishing that are out there. However, the inconsistent and arbitrary
terminology that is being used to refer to these variants are complicating
communication about OA-related issues. This study intends to initiate a
discussion on this issue, by proposing a conceptual model of OA. Our model
features six different dimensions (prestige, user rights, stability, immediacy,
peer-review, and cost). Each dimension allows for a range of different options.
We believe that by combining the options in these six dimensions, we can arrive
at all the current variants of OA, while avoiding ambiguous and/or arbitrary
terminology. This model can be an useful tool for funders and policy makers who
need to decide exactly which aspects of OA are necessary for each specific
scenario.
