The unintended consequences of Open Access publishing – And possible futures

[Display omitted] •Most early geography journals were established by learned societies as non-profit-making ventures.•Most of these are now published by commercial organisations, alongside many others they have established.•Journal publication is now a capitalist, profit-making venture to which academics donate their intellectual property.•Moves to make all journal papers derived from publicly-funded research freely accessible and sustained by author charges will exacerbate this situation.•Non-capitalist alternatives are desirable. 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.