Action Plan for Diamond Open Access: Developing resources for an inclusive worldwide community

Open Access is key for the future of research. Among its benefits, it has been proved that it boosts the visibility of publications, it increases the speed of scientific inquiry, many funding sources require it, it guarantees more reproducibility, and it also provides the researcher with individual benefits (it increases citations and stimulates collaborations).

Last month, Science Europe, cOAlition S, OPERAS, and the French National Research Agency (ANR) introduced the Action Plan for Diamond Open Access. Its main objective is to build and establish a sustainable, aligned, and inclusive Diamond OA scholarly community. It plans to develop common tools and resources for the Diamond OA ecosystem while “respecting the cultural, multilingual, and disciplinary diversity of the sector”.

According to this model, journals and platforms do not charge fees to authors or readers. Instead of this, they intend to represent the concept of bibliodiversity, being equitable by nature and design and leading “community-driven, academic-led and -owned publishing initiatives”.

However, Diamond Open Access also faces challenges related to the “technical capacity, management, visibility, and sustainability of journals and platforms”. Therefore, more discussions among stakeholders are needed. That includes “researchers, RFOs, RPOs, university libraries, university presses, faculties, departments, research institutes, scholarly societies, ministries, and service providers”.

In agreement with the Open Access Diamond Journals Study recommendations, the action plan focuses on four key ideas: efficiency, quality standards, capacity building, and sustainability.

Action Plan Diamond inclusive journals Open Access platforms research Resources