Acquisition logic as an obstacle to Diamond Open Access

Diamond Open Access (OA) refers to scientific publications that are available free of charge. Authors do not bear any costs when they publish journal articles or books. Likewise, readers who are interested in these scientific results do not have to pay any fees. As the fairest model of OA, it maximises participation in scientific discourse. In this context, the research project Acquisition logic as an obstacle to Diamond Open Access (ELADOAH) is investigating how this publication model can be organised in Germany in the long term.

Research background

The academic system is currently facing the challenge of sustainable funding for Diamond OA publications. It is widely acknowledged that public funds can be used to purchase goods and services, but not to finance what is already available free of charge. This may hinder scientific libraries from promoting free academic journals and books in a sustainable way. At the same time, science is breaking away from large and commercial publishing houses in order to develop its own open publication projects (community-led). The aim is to ensure that libraries and institutions do not have to pay high fees to access research articles. So how can we enable a more sustainable and fairer access to research?

Development of an organisational model for a Diamond Open Access publication infrastructure

The project clarifies this complex issue through two research contributions. At the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society, we are investigating which examples of public funding structures are already in place or currently under development. Based on the findings, our research team will conduct a landscape study on collaborative models of royalty-free publishing.

Our project partner Verfassungsblog will prepare a legal assessment on the question of the extent to which public budget law actually stands in the way of financing Diamond OA publications and how this obstacle can be overcome. On the basis of both research contributions, the project team will develop an organisational model for a jointly supported and organised Diamond Open Access publication infrastructure in Germany at the end of the project.

The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (16KOA027).

The project proposal is published on Zenodo: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10409394.