Abstract This paper comes from the third stage (H‐3) of the long‐running Harbingers of Change project (2015), which has investigated the scholarly communication beliefs and practices of early career researchers (ECRs) for a decade. The first stage (H‐1) focussed on generational (Millennial) change; the second (H‐2) on the impact of COVID; and, currently, the third stage (H‐3) on AI and its impact. While each stage has a particular focus all stages also asked questions about wider scholarly communications. This paper re‐examines an important finding found in H‐1 and backed by H‐2, which was that ECRs thought article processing charges were a major barrier to publishing open access (OA). Since then, OA has become more complex with more models available and a huge body of OA journals to navigate, so it is time to return to the topic. Data were obtained from China, France, Malaysia, Poland, Portugal and Spain about national guidelines and practices with 62 ECRs interviewed in‐depth. The findings indicate that ECRs are encountering challenges, or dilemmas in OA publishing. More precisely, they struggle with issues surrounding cost perceptions and understanding within the intricate academic publishing environment.