Universities collaborate to develop diamond open access publishing
NEWS
The theme of this year’s International Open Access Week is “The Cost of Knowledge”. The rising costs of scholarly open-access publishing have sparked considerable debate. Diamond Open Access is an alternative publishing model with no paywalls for either publishing or reading.
Due to the high and continually increasing costs of the current system, stakeholders at national, Nordic and European levels have begun to question the dominant role of commercial publishers in scholarly publishing. The Council of the European Union has highlighted the importance of non-profit open-access scholarly publishing models that do not charge fees to either authors or readers. The Council emphasises that publicly funded research organisations should support such initiatives and encourages Member States to develop action plans and funding mechanisms to promote them.
The Bibsam Consortium negotiates many publishing agreements on behalf of Swedish higher education institutions. In its action plan, the consortium aims to promote and support new routes to open-access publishing and to develop alternative business models. It also seeks to support researcher-led journals wishing to migrate from traditional publishers to other publishing platforms.
No paywalls for reading or publishing
One publishing model receiving growing attention is Diamond Open Access. The model is based on the idea that research is best supported by publishing channels that are owned, governed and managed by the research community itself, rather than being driven by commercial interests and author fees. Diamond open-access publishing removes barriers to both reading and publishing. Publications should be peer reviewed to ensure high quality and made available under an open copyright licence.
Several collaborative initiatives have been launched to strengthen quality and expertise in Diamond Open Access publishing. At the European level, there is the European Diamond Capacity Hub (EDCH). In the Nordic region, the Nordic Capacity Centre for Diamond Open Access has been established, while in Sweden, twelve higher education institutions and research funders collaborate through the Swedish Diamond Open Access Node.
“Much of the Diamond Open Access publishing currently takes place on a small scale at universities. Collaboration through the Swedish node enables us to jointly develop support for editorial teams and facilitate a transition to a system without fees for publishing or reading,” says Jan Eklöf, librarian at Umeå University Library.
The needs of journal editorial teams
A key activity within the Swedish collaboration has been to map the needs of journal editorial teams. A survey was therefore distributed to 248 Swedish journal editors, and the results have now been compiled into a report, available on Zenodo.
The collaboration is also exploring funding models. How can editorial work and publishing be financed if neither authors nor readers are charged fees? Other focus areas include improving efficiency and collaboration, supporting Diamond Open Access book publishing, enhancing quality, and strengthening information and communication efforts, not least through the node’s website.The Swedish collaboration has been running for two years and has now been given the go-ahead to continue throughout 2027.
Another initiative aimed at developing infrastructure and capacity for Diamond Open Access is a pilot project involving the National Library of Sweden (KB) and the Swedish research councils Formas and Forte. The project, which began in June 2026 and will run for two years, aims to gather knowledge about and further develop the Swedish open publishing landscape.
