The growth of open access (OA) has created a unique opportunity for publishers and institutions to collaborate and deliver real change to the way science is disseminated and built upon. OA allows institutions to share and evaluate the research performed by their researchers as never before. Through OA, research can now reach readers from all walks of life, from all countries of the world. Combined with article-level metrics, authors and institutions are able to see the full reach of their research, beyond the traditional channels of citations and journal impact factors (IFs). However, the drive by policymakers to implement OA presents significant challenges to institutions and publishers. These challenges mean that the future of OA is by no means certain, and it is now up to funders, institutions and authors to work together to ensure the potential of OA is fully realized.