The unintended consequences of Open Access publishing - And possible futures

Journal publication in geography changed significantly in the late 20th century as its dominance by learned societies was captured by (large, multi-national) commercial organisations making large profits from freely-donated authors' intellectual property. Further changes are now proposed, involving journals being freely accessible, sustained not by subscriptions but rather by author payments, which will enhance capitalist publishers' profit-making potential and disadvantage authors. Alternatives are needed, returning to the earlier model whereby research papers are not treated as profit-making commodities.