EIFL is one of 23 partners in the ‘Developing Institutional Open Access Publishing Models to Advance Scholarly Communication’ (DIAMAS) project, which was launched in September 2022 to enhance open access publishing in the European Research Area (ERA).
In the transition towards open access (OA), institutional publishing is challenged by fragmentation and varying service quality, visibility, and sustainability. The three-year DIAMAS project, which is funded by the European Union, aims to address these challenges and to deliver an aligned, high-quality, and sustainable institutional OA scholarly publication ecosystem for the ERA, setting a new standard for OA publishing, shared and co-designed with all stakeholders.
The project will specifically seek to enhance Diamond OA publishing in the ERA. Diamond OA refers to a scholarly publication model in which journals and platforms do not charge fees to either authors or readers. The project will also interact closely with the global community of the ‘Action Plan for Diamond OA’ signatories.
The DIAMAS project partnership comprises 23 organizations from 12 European countries with expertise in OA academic publishing and scholarly communication: Aix-Marseille Université (AMU) (Coordinator), OPERAS, CNRS, EIFL, the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT), the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies (TSV), JISC, the Association of European Research Libraries (LIBER), University of Barcelona, University of Zadar, University of Zagreb, Science Europe, the European University Association (EUA), the Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association (OASPA), Arctic University of Norway, the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), University of Göttingen, SPARC Europe, Utrecht University, the National Documentation Centre (EKT), IBL-PAN, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), and the European Science Foundation (ESF) (acting for cOAlition S).
Timeline
2022 - 2025
Activities
- Map the current landscape of Institutional Publishing Service Providers (IPSPs) in 25 countries of the ERA with special attention for IPSPs that do not charge fees for publishing or reading. This will yield a taxonomy of IPSPs and an IPSP landscape report, to inform project implementation.
- Coordinate and improve the efficiency and quality of IPSPs by developing a Diamond OA Standard (DOAS) to promote quality in Diamond OA publishing.
- Formulate community-led, actionable recommendations and Diamond OA publishing strategies for institutional leaders, funders/sponsors/donors and policymakers in the ERA. Workshops and targeted networking actions will reach and engage institutional decision-makers.
Achievements
- Co-created the Diamond OA Standard (DOAS), which sets out standards for institutional publishing (IP) of scholarly journals, with a special focus on those publishing models that do not charge fees to authors or readers. The DOAS includes a self-assessment tool - a practical benchmarking resource to elevate standards in scholarly publishing. Read more about the DOAS.
- Conducted a survey (2023) to learn more about the landscape of institutional publishing in the ERA, and published the report, Institutional Publishing in the ERA: Results from the DIAMAS survey. A summary of the survey results are included in a factsheet for libraries that also includes tools and networking opportunities for libraries involved in institutional publishing.
- Researched the financial sustainability of institutional publishing in Europe and published results of the research and recommendations in the report, The financial sustainability of institutional publishers and service providers in Europe. The research included a literature review of economic and financial aspects of institutional publishing, quantitative surveys, focus groups and interviews conducted over 18 months. See a summary of the results in this blog post and a factsheet.
- Compiled the report, ‘National overviews on sustaining institutional publishing in Europe’. Countries covered are Croatia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain and the UK. See a factsheet and some highlights on this web page.
- Developed the Best Practices checklist for Diamond OA publishers (part of the DIAMAS Best practices report, based on an analysis of the existing quality evaluation criteria, best practices, and assessment systems in publishing developed by international publishers associations, research funding organisations, international indexing databases, etc.).
