Project Diamond Open Access in the Netherlands

Diamond Open Access (DOA) is a scholarly communication model that ensures immediate access to scholarly works without embargoes while preserving author copyrights and not charging either authors or readers. In this sense, it is a model that is community-driven and often associated with academic-led and not-for-profit publishing initiatives, like university presses and scholar-led publishing houses. DOA fosters diversity in publishing, enabling researchers with limited resources to contribute to Open Access and covering topics and languages often overlooked by commercial publishers. Saying this, DOA aligns with the principles of bibliodiversity, promoting multilingualism and fostering a more balanced scholarly communication environment. By returning control of the publishing process to researchers, DOA models prioritize societal impact and contribute to a more equitable dissemination of knowledge. A lot of international efforts are taking place around DOA and the sustainability of the publishing landscape, with particular highlight to the Latin America case of success in consolidating DOA in the scholarly communication ecosystem, but also to the DIAMAS, CRAFT-OA and PALOMERA projects, with a focus in the European Research Area.

The Netherlands commitment with DOA resulted in the launching of the project “Enhancing Diamond Open Access in the Netherlands” on February 1st, to encourage DOA and strengthen non-profit scholarly- and library-led publishing. This initiative builds upon the report "Versterking ondersteuning van diamond open access in Nederland", published by the Universities of the Netherlands (UNL). The report proposed measures for ensuring the sustainability and structural support of journals, books, and infrastructures transitioning to DOA. Additionally, it is also one of the goals outlined in the Ambition Document National Plan Open Science 2030, emphasizing the need for investments in open infrastructure, contributing to a more inclusive, sustainable, and scholar-led scholarly communication ecosystem. In this sense, it aligns with the commitment to a more responsible publishing, as stated in a proposal by cOAlition S.

With this project, a collaboration between UKB and UNL, and lead by Erasmus University Rotterdam, it is aimed to create the conditions to strengthening DOA through an integrated and collective approach. To achieve this, the plan proposes the following steps:

• Establishing a national expertise center for DOA
• Developing capacity within DOA publishing platforms
• Implementing a monitoring system for DOA

More information about the project here.