The paper seeks to introduce the “critical open access literacy” construct as a holistic approach to confront the challenges in open access as a dimension of scholarly communication. The paper first introduces the concepts of information literacy and open access in the context of transformations in the scholarly information environment. Via a theoretical-analytical exercise on the basis of a literature review of the intersections between the two concepts and of the criticisms of open access, the paper discusses the role of critical information literacy in addressing the challenges in open access and lays the theoretical-conceptual groundwork for the critical open access literacy construct. The structural nature of the challenges and transformations in the scholarly information environment require new foci and pedagogical practices in library and information studies. A more holistic, critical, and integrative approach to open access is warranted, which could effectively be achieved through the re-conceptualization of information literacy. The paper specifies the avenues for putting the theoretical conceptualizations of critical open access literacy into practice by identifying possible foci for information literacy instruction alongside a transformed role for librarians. The paper extends deliberations on the role of critical information literacy for scholarly communication and attempts to advance the research fields of the two domains by proposing a new construct situated at the junction of open access and information literacy.