Diamond Open Access is a concept that emerged from the academic environment. It ensures that research outputs are freely available to both authors and readers. This means that there are no fees for reading or publishing articles. Diamond Open Access guarantees editorial independence and scientific transparency.
As stated by the UNESCO, “The Diamond Open Access model embodies the principles outlined in the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science, advocating for the unrestricted accessibility of scientific research as part of a broader commitment to equity, inclusivity, and collective benefit. By positioning science as a global public good, UNESCO emphasizes the need to eliminate barriers that hinder knowledge sharing and scientific progress. ”
International policies and initiatives
- Action Plan for Diamond Open Access: Action Plan presented by Science Europe, cOAlition S, OPERAS, and the French National Research Agency (ANR) to further develop and expand a sustainable, community-driven Diamond OA scholarly communication ecosystem.
- Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities: published on 22 October 2003, it is one of the milestones of the Open Access movement.
- Budapest Open Access Initiative: published 2002, this is the original declaration and guidelines to make research free and available to anyone with internet access and promote advances in the sciences, medicine, and health.
- CRAFT-OA (Creating a Robust Accessible Federated Technology for Open Access) aims to make the Open Access landscape more resilient by centralising expertise, collaboration and a joint visibility/indexing layer.
- Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA): DORA’s mission is to advance practical and robust approaches to research assessment globally and across all scholarly disciplines.
- DIAMAS (Developing Institutional Open Access Publishing Models to Advance Scholarly Communication): a Horizon Europe-funded project that aims at supporting the development the Diamond Open Access model focusing on best practices, skills, editorial quality, and financial sustainability.
- Diamond Discovery Hub: a result of the CRAFT-OA project, designed to improve the visibility and discoverability of diamond OA journals.
- DOAJ is an independent, extensive index of open access journals from around the world.
- Open Research Europe is an open access publishing venue for European Commission-funded researchers across all disciplines, with no author fees.
- OPERAS is the European Research Infrastructure for the development of open scholarly communication in the social sciences and humanities.
- Plan S is an initiative for Open Access publishing that was launched in September 2018. The plan is supported by cOAlition S, an international consortium of research funding and performing organisations.
- UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science: the first international standard setting instrument on open science.