Diamond open access: when open articles cost nothing to the author or the reader

Diamond open access is an open access publishing model in which scientific articles are free to readers and authors do not pay article processing charges (APCs). Publishing is funded by institutions, consortia, libraries, or research communities. In this way, the dissemination of knowledge does not depend on the budgets of individual authors or readers, but on community solidarity and long-term infrastructure support.

We invite you to familiarize yourself with diamond open access journals in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) (almost 14,000 journals). You can view the list of diamond open access journals published by Vytautas Magnus University here.

Why is this important?

• Fairness and inclusion. Authors from smaller institutions or countries can publish on an equal footing.
• Control of knowledge for the community. Publishing decisions and infrastructure are more often managed by the academic community (associations, universities, libraries).
• Transparency. Clear costs and open accountability reduce the pressure to commercialize.

How does this work in practice?

• Journals and platforms (mostly managed by scientific societies, universities, or libraries) review, edit, and distribute publications without any additional fees.
• Open standards: Creative Commons licenses (e.g., CC BY) and open metadata are used.

Diamond open access is one of the clearest answers to this year’s Open Access Week question, “Who owns knowledge?” as knowledge belongs to the community, and the infrastructure for its dissemination is managed and supported by the academic community itself.