This talk will cover material from Dr Samuel Moore’s book Publishing Beyond the Market (University of Michigan Press). In the book, Dr Moore argues that the move to open access should focus less on the free accessibility of research outputs and more on who controls the publications and infrastructures for scholarly communication. By deploying theoretical literature on science and technology studies, care ethics, and the commons, the book critically interrogates open access and re-imagines a more ethical future for researcher-led publishing. A case study of Plan S—the multi-funder European policy for OA publishing—explores its tendency to rehearse all the failures of commercialisation. Through critical engagement with the open access landscape, the book reveals the shortcomings of market-centric and policy-based approaches to open access book and journal publishing, particularly their tendency to reinforce conservatism, commercialism, and private control of publishing. The talk will alsoexplore the importance of collectivity and democratic governance within the transition to open access publishing, suggesting that developing a commons-based, scholar-led publishing landscape through a series of presses that are each managed by working academics could offer a productive counterpoint to marketised systems of open access and subscription publishing.