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23 July 2020

Help us get to know the open access journals and platforms that are free for readers and authors

You are invited to participate in a survey dedicated to gaining in-depth understanding of open access journals that don’t charge author-fees, often known as the “diamond model”; journals that are free to both readers and authors. In addition, we are launching a crowdsourcing effort to list diamond journals not yet covered in major databases like DOAJ.

This survey is part of the Diamond Open Access Study commissioned by cOAlition S and intends to explore and deepen our understanding of collaborative non-commercial publishing models for Open Access.

We need to assess the depth and breadth of open access diamond offerings across the globe, and we need to make the case for this kind of open access if we are to gain stronger support from funders.

The survey will be open until the 25 August 2020

Take me to the survey.

Rationale

The landscape of open access journals and platforms that do not charge authors to publish is broad and diverse. These journals and platforms serve specific research areas in different languages, and are attuned to local or regional needs specific to various publishing cultures.

This rich variety makes it hard for diamond journals to be viewed as a publishing sector with common strengths, goals, and challenges. As a result, diamond journals' specific impact on the scholarly community is often underestimated. This survey aims to draw a more complete picture of the diamond journal and platform offering to identify concrete ways to rally, coordinate, and support this sector in the future.

Objective
We plan to gain a deeper understanding of this landscape and bring greater visibility to it. Furthermore, we will provide insights that will help cOAlition S and other stakeholders develop effective policies and funding mechanisms that more strategically support this sector.

How you can help
If you belong to the scientific or editorial team of an open access journal that doesn’t charge authors to publish, you can take the survey on behalf of your journal: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GZQDBT5
If you want to help us identify more diamond journals, especially those not covered in DOAJ, you can contribute to this online spreadsheet by adding more information into it: https://tinyurl.com/diamond-journals
You can disseminate this message to your community to increase our outreach to as many quality journals as possible. This message is available in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese.

Contact
If you have any questions, please contact: operas@operas-eu.org

About us
The study is commissioned by cOAlition S a group of national research funders, European and international organisations, and charitable foundations who are committed to making full and immediate Open Access to research publications a reality.

The Consortium is coordinated by OPERAS, the infrastructure for open scholarly communication for SSH in Europe. Its partners in this study are: SPARC Europe, Utrecht University, DOAJ, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, LIBER, OASPA, ENRESSH, Redalyc, AmeliCA, and the CSI.