INASP has done work around enabling access to research for over 20 years. In that time, publishing, technology and the environment in which researchers in low- and lower-middle-income countries (LLIMCs) work has changed enormously. The funding environment for such work has also changed significantly. As INASP embarks on a new phase of work, it has chosen to reflect on those changes in order to help it to make informed decisions about if and how to take this area of work forward. To date, INASP has worked to enable access to research because: 1. Access to research strengthens a country’s capacity to address development issues 2. Researchers in LLIMCs need/demand access to research 3. Those needs/demands are not adequately met This review considers the evidence around the extent to which these assumptions hold true in 2018.