Online, open access is the superior model for scholarly communication. A variety of scientific communities in physics, the life sciences and economics have gone furthest in innovating their scholarly communication through open access, enhancing accessibility for scientists, students and the interested public. Open access enjoys a comparative advantage across the sciences and humanities and it is therefore only logical that functional innovation and structural improvements should be similar in the natural and social sciences. A variety of innovative moves in the natural and social sciences are portrayed and analysed, demonstrating correspondence of the innovative logic across the disciplines even as solutions vary. Open access is technologically feasible and economically efficient. Moreover, open access has become vital to secure the continued advancement of knowledge. It may be expected that public and philanthropic funding will flow in the future only if public visibility and academic impact of the research results can be demonstrated.