What is Diamond Open Access?

Diamond Open Access refers to a scholarly publishing model in which scientific journals and publishing platforms are free for both authors and readers. Unlike commercial open access models that charge Article Processing Charges (APCs) to authors, or traditional subscription journals that paywall content behind reader fees, Diamond OA ensures that research is treated as a global public good.

It is entirely community-driven, academic-led, and owned by scholarly institutions, non-profit organizations, learned societies, or public universities.

Core Pillars of Diamond Open Access

• Equity and Inclusion: Eliminates financial barriers for authors from the Global South and underfunded institutions, ensuring that the ability to publish research depends solely on scientific rigor, not financial capacity.
• Community Ownership and Governance: Publishing infrastructures, editorial workflows, and intellectual property remain in the hands of the academic community rather than commercial publishers.
• Bibliodiversity and Multilingualism: Protects diverse publishing formats and local research languages, enabling scientific outputs to address regional challenges while retaining international discoverability.
• Public and Sustainable Infrastructure: Operates on open-source platforms and non-profit digital public infrastructures supported by public institutions, governments, and academic consortia.

Global Alignment and Policy Frameworks

The Diamond Open Access movement aligns with major global open science declarations:

• UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science (2021): Emphasizes that scientific knowledge should be openly accessible, equitable, and non-commercial.
• Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI20): Calls for academic community control of infrastructure and the elimination of APC-driven exclusion.
• Action Plan for Diamond Open Access (2022): Formulated by Science Europe, cOAlition S, OPERAS, and the French National Research Agency (ANR) to build capacity and long-term sustainability for non-commercial journals.

Why Diamond Open Access Matters for Indonesia and the Global South

Indonesia hosts one of the largest ecosystems of open access scientific journals in the world, with thousands of institutional journals managed via Open Journal Systems (OJS). Embracing the Diamond Open Access model strengthens institutional repository infrastructure, prevents predatory publishing practices, and ensures sustainable national scientific communication without burdening researchers or public funds.