The changing economics of distributing information in the internet age are drivers for change that are equally valid across all STM subjects. We have seen this change applied mainly in biomedicine and physics, but now chemists are becoming more aware of the opportunities. Open access is certainly a hot topic, and can be achieved in two ways - by archiving the article in a repository, while also publishing through a traditional subscription-led journal, or by publishing in a journal that makes the article freely available immediately. Many publishers are experimenting with hybrid models, while BioMed Central has recently launched Chemistry Central as a fully open access publisher. This paper will focus on the latter model, and will compare some of the business models, as well a looking back at the strides made by open access publishing in biomedical research.