The open access landscape is highly disruptive to established publishing practices and large changes are taking place globally in this arena. Some dismiss and resist the evolution of open access publishing practices as disreputable progress and wish to turn back the clock while others laud it as the future rise of scholarship.

This presentation will provide a broad overview of the open access discussion and focus on several research projects currently underway to ascertain faculty, student, and alumni reactions to their own open access author- and reader-ship from both developed and transition countries.