Action Plan for Diamond Open Access

The Action Plan for Diamond Open Access responds to the diagnosis of the OA Diamond Journals Study, which identified a broad ecosystem of journals and platforms with no fees for authors or readers, but also fragmentation and weaknesses in visibility, management, technical capacity, funding and sustainability (Bosman et al., 2021). The plan itself draws on the estimate of between 17,000 and 29,000 Diamond journals worldwide and argues that this model, despite its value for bibliodiversity, requires greater coordination among researchers, funders, institutions, libraries, scholarly societies, ministries and service providers (Ancion et al., 2022).

Its overall objective is to develop and expand a sustainable Diamond scholarly communication ecosystem, governed by the scholarly community and built around shared principles, guidelines and quality standards. To this end, it organizes action into four complementary lines. The first seeks to improve efficiency through shared resources, interoperability between submission systems, publishing platforms and metadata, and synergies among journals in the same discipline, territory or language. The second proposes the flexible alignment of standards and good practices on funding models, editorial management, research integrity, governance, communication, diversity and degree of openness. The third focuses on capacity building through training materials, guidelines for editors, authors and reviewers, and a capacity centre for Diamond publishing. The fourth addresses sustainability through ownership and governance frameworks, cost transparency, a more balanced distribution of funding and coordinated mechanisms for financial support.

Implementation is conceived as a collective roadmap, with some actions initially developed through the DIAMAS project (2022–2025) and with the aim that the Diamond community will take over its long-term implementation (Ancion et al., 2022).