In this book I suggest that the goal of achieving universal open access looks today as though it may have been unrealistic. I suggest that the research community failed to appreciate the costs of online publishing, and I suggest that we all failed to anticipate the likely outcome of creating a largely unregulated open network.

I also suggest that OA advocates failed to anticipate the unintended consequences of their advocacy. They likewise failed to appreciate that changes in the geopolitical situation could make the aspirations outlined in Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) moot. And I question whether these aspirations are in any case realisable in the neoliberal environment of the Global North.

I also suggest that were China to offer an alternative route to open access it is unlikely it would lead to a better outcome. And I note that there is a desire in the Global South to develop what I refer to as "a third way" but we cannot know how successful that might be.

I also suggest that there must be some doubt as to whether a fair and equitable global system of scholarly communication is even possible in today’s political environment.

Finally, I raise the possibility that, for a number of reasons, we may in any case see a pushback against open access.

(In order to benefit from the embedded hyperlinks this book would ideally be read alongside the associated eBook: https://richardpoynder.co.uk/Jaws.pdf).