The most obvious advantages are the following:
- unlimited and free access to publications
- higher citation rates for Open Access articles
- increased visibility of research (even for non-researchers)
- better indexed by search engines
- Secure long-term archiving of publications when uploaded to certified repositories or publishing in renowned Open Access journals
- advantages by using digital documents in research and education (Open Educational resources)
- collaborative work, use of automated data and text analysis
- authors are in full control of their copyright
A more comprehensive depiction of the advantages of Open Access publishing as well as arguments against some reservations may be found here:
An important question for researchers in regards to Open Access is the quality of an Open Access journal.
The initiative thinkchecksubmit has discussed this question and created a checklist.
Should most of these questions be answered with a “yes”, this Open Access journal may be fit for a publication.