Welcome

About us

The expertise centre Diamond Open Access strengthens community-lead publishing in the Netherlands by creating and facilitating knowledge exchange and resources.

Diamond Open Access is a publication model in which scholarly work is made freely available to readers without charging authors, making it an equitable and sustainable alternative to commercial publishing.

We are a diverse team of experts and advocates in scholarly publishing across Dutch universities, university presses and service providers. Our activities focus on promoting, monitor, professionalizing, and empower community-driven publishing.

The expertise centre emerged from the program Strengthening Diamond Open Access in the Netherlands. This program is funded by the Universities of the Netherlands (UNL) and launched by the Dutch Consortium of University Libraries (UKB).

Values and benefits of Diamond Open Access

Equity and Inclusivity

Everyone regardless of their financial and geographic location can access and publish scholarly content without any fees.

Academic ownership

Ensures that editors or scholarly societies retain control over journals, including author rights and editorial processes.

Non-profit

Operates primarily within academic institutions and scholarly societies, prioritizing quality over a high number of articles.

Contributes to bibliodiversity

Enables publications in a diversity of languages, formats and subjects, which are often overlooked by for-profit publishers.

What we do

Our activities focus on five main areas:

Advocacy
Raising awareness of challenges in the current publication culture and promoting community-led publishing as an alternative.

Training
Developing resources and organizing workshops and training to strengthen Diamond Open Access skills and editorial quality.

Community building & events
Connecting researchers, publishers, librarians, and policymakers through meetings and national and international networks.

Infrastructure development
Developing sustainable national solutions and supporting service providers within the Diamond Open Access landscape.

Mapping and monitoring
Mapping community-led journals and monitoring the use of Diamond OA journals.