Scientific publishing has been thrown open by the recent advances in open access publishing, in terms of both policy and process. This transformation will impact early career researchers the hardest – how should they know where to publish their work? More often than not, they rely on their supervisor’s advice and are instructed to aim for a traditional high impact journal, but this is not the only way! In fact, with the loss of the author’s copyright and the restricted availability of research, we would argue that it is not the best way either! In this market place discussion, we explore the advantages of publishing in open access journals. In particular, how it can benefit young scientists without compromising their careers. The audience will cover questions such as: How can we measure the impact of an open access paper? What does it cost? And how does publishing open access research benefit the author and the research community? All interested scientists are invited to drop in and join the discussion.