You'll see two colors commonly mentioned in discussions of open access: green and gold.
Green open access consists of peer-reviewed articles deposited in freely accessible digital repositories, whether subject or institutional. Examples of green open access include the IR@UF and arXiv.
Gold open access consists of journals that make all peer-reviewed articles freely available for online reading at or after publication, with no fee or registration required. Examples of gold open access include PLoS ONE and BMC Medicine.
Bronze open access are publications that are currently freely available from the publisher. Their status as freely available is not guaranteed and may be temporary. Examples of bronze open access are the many e-resources publishers made available during the COVID-19 pandemic.
See details of variations of Open Access in How Open Is It? Open Access Spectrum vers. 2.0 by SPARC and PLoS.
Have you received an email soliciting manuscripts or offering an editorial board position from a publisher you have never heard of before? The journal may have a great sounding name and you may recognize some prominent names already listed on the editorial board.
Unfortunately, it may be from an unscrupulous publisher whose main goal is to publish as many papers as possible while exacting high publication charges (article processing fees) while providing minimal if any peer review and exposure. Some of the people on the editorial board may not even know they have been listed or may be trying unsuccessfully to have their name removed. The fact that manuscripts require publication fees may be buried in the fine print or communicated only after acceptance of the manuscript. There have even been reports of flawed manuscripts being published despite the author’s objections.
Unfortunately, a few disreputable OA publishers reinforce the persistent myth that all open access (OA) journals are low quality and have no peer review. In fact, rigorously peer reviewed OA journals with respectable journal impact factors now exist in many disciplines. If you have any questions about a publisher solicitation, feel free to contact your library subject specialist or the Scholarly Communications Librarian.
Learn tips to avoid fraudulent publishers from this 18 min presentation: 
Additional Readings on Journal Quality:
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