Time may show that 2012 was the year when open-access publishing – long supported, but not enforced, by research funders and institutions – reached its tipping point. In June a working group for the UK government recommended a “clear policy direction to support publication in open access or hybrid journals, funded by article processing charges, as the main vehicle for the publication of research, especially when it is publicly funded”.1 The group's chair, Dame Janet Finch, asserted that “the long term future lies with open access. . .we need to embrace this change and do so in a measured way”.2 Supporting the gradual transition from subscription-based …