Haar, J2020-11-162020-11-162020-02-012020-02-01New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, Volume 44 Number 3, pp. 45-57.0110-0637https://hdl.handle.net/10292/13788The article highlights the long process that open access publishing has taken both in terms of our decision to provide open access to the New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations but also in the general sphere of open access publishing. The article commences with a brief overview of the different debates and forms of open access journals. We also chronicle the various stages of our decision to move from the traditional, user-pays model to open access publishing. While technological developments have facilitated more open access publishing, there are also a number of key barriers, especially the universities’ use of rankings of journals as performance management proxies, which makes it difficult to move from traditional to open access publishing. It is suggested, however, that open access requirements from major funders could be a game changer which will support better public access to research findings and adjust the balance between traditional and open access publishing.The NZJER is a fully open access, peer-reviewed journal which publishes research and commentaries that aim to contribute to an in-depth understanding of employment relations.Living Wage Employer; Organisational trust; Career satisfaction; Turnover intentions; OCBs; Mediation effectsJournal ArticleOpenAccess