As in the previous funding phase, the implementation of diamond open access remains an important thematic focus for open-access.network. Two open-access.network events on the organisation and funding of diamond open access took place in the middle of June. They show that community-led diamond open access is being facilitated by various initiatives in different disciplinary contexts – a dynamic development that raises hope for a sustainable and scholar-led open access transformation.
At the first event in this series, which took place on 10 June, several consortial funding offerings and the Diamond Funding Navigator introduced themselves. Following these introductory presentations, participants had an opportunity to talk to representatives of the initiatives at virtual exhibition stands. At the second event, which took place on 11 June within the framework of the series oa.talk, the Open Journals Collective, the Open Book Collective, and Thoth Open Metadata presented their offerings.
Diverse Consortial Funding Offerings
In her introductory talk at the beginning of the first event, Juliane Finger, who in her capacity as Open Access Representative of the Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (ZBW) is responsible for the project SeDOA (National Service Centre for Diamond Open Access), discussed the results of the SeDOA Needs Survey and the relevance of the issue of financing. While various models for funding diamond open access are being discussed (see Mittermaier, 2026; Tautz et al., 2025), many journals that want to switch to a diamond open access model struggle with limited resources. Solving the funding question is therefore a key component in enabling a flip to diamond open access. Consortial funding models address this issue by offering a way of supporting journals by organising funding consortia, which are supported mostly by scholarly libraries.
After the introductory talk, several consortial funding initiatives were presented – namely, the Open Library Economics (OLEcon), KOALA TIB, and two offerings supported by specialised information services (FID), edu_consort_oa and FID Media. Located at the ZBW and financed via a project funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR), OLEcon supports economics journals in obtaining consortial funding. KOALA TIB organises funding consortia for scholarly journals from technical disciplines. In doing so, it is continuing the service for these disciplines that was developed within the framework of the project KOALA and expanded in the follow-up project KOALA-AV. This has led to the development of consortial funding initiatives based on the KOALA model, for example an initiative on the part of FID Media that focuses on journals in the field of media studies.
Located at the Specialised Information Service (FID) for Educational Science and Research, the project edu_consort_oa organises funding for books and journals in education science and has already succeeded in converting open access books and journals to a diamond open access model.
The Diamond Funding Navigator (DFN), which is being developed at the Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology University Library (TIB), provides an overview of these and other initiatives. The DFN enables users to search for collective funding opportunities. It also allows libraries to search for publications by authors from their own institutions in the journals for which a consortial funding initiative is raising financial support. Thus, the DFN provides an important infrastructure for linking initiatives and disseminating information on diamond open access.
After the projects were introduced, the participants had an opportunity in the individual breakout rooms to ask questions about the initiatives and offerings.
The large number of participants at this event demonstrated once again the great interest in diamond open access and in the variety of concrete ways to financially support journals in switching to a diamond open access model.
British Community Initiatives for Sustainable Diamond Open Access
The oa.talk event on 11 June went one step further and dealt with the commitment of and collaboration between three globally active, scholar-led initiatives from the United Kingdom. The speakers, Caroline Ball (Open Book Collective), Tom Shaw (Open Journals Collective), and Toby Steiner (Thoth Open Metadata), shared their experiences and perspectives regarding their collaboration for sustainable and community-led diamond open access. The webinar focused on the commitment of the community and the importance of cross-organisational cooperation to promote diamond open access.
Opening the first part of the webinar, Caroline Ball, Community Engagement Lead at the Open Book Collective, referred to the structural difficulties faced by scholar-led open access publishers, who receive hardly any consideration in the current library funding structures. The Open Book Collective (OBC) represents a response to this problem. It aims not only to offer a funding model between consortia and publishers but also to build a community that promotes bibliodiversity.
The Open Book Collective’s practice of providing long-term support for diamond open access is supplemented by the exchange of resources and knowledge with the Open Journals Collective (OJC). Taking the baton from Caroline Ball, Tom Shaw, Library Engagement Lead at the Open Journals Collective, presented the OJC/OBC Impact Dashboard. Currently under construction, it can be used to obtain an overview of the publications of the participating journals or publishers (Ball et al., 2026).
In the second part of the webinar, which was presented by Toby Steiner, COO of Thoth Open Metadata, the focus shifted to open infrastructure. Thoth’s services are particularly beneficial to smaller publishers, as they help them to prepare metadata in such a way that their products can be made visible in indexing systems. Steiner demonstrated that community-driven, open infrastructures that are designed for interoperability also need collective support, as they underpin diamond open access. The webinar ended with a call for collaboration and exchange with experts from the library and publishing sectors in Germany.
Both events show just how advanced services for diamond open access are by now. To further consolidate sustainable, fair, and scholar-led open access, it would be desirable to promote exchange and collaboration between the various initiatives.
References
- Ball, C., Shaw, T., & Steiner, T. (2026, May 11). Open Book Collective, Open Journals Collective, and Thoth: Collaborating for a sustainable Diamond OA future [oa.talk webinar presentation]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20639612
- Butz, A., Hennig, F., Matuszkiewicz, K., Finger, J., Eppelin, A., & Kuhlwilm, R. (2026, June 10). Neue Angebote für die Konsortiale Finanzierung von Diamond Open Access [Information event presentation]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20627711
- Mittermaier, B. (2026, May 19–22). Der Deutschland-Fonds Diamond Open Access DeFDOA. [Conference presentation]. 114th BiblioCon, Berlin. https://doi.org/10.34734/FZJ-2026-02505.
- Tautz, D., Holzer, A., Schmidt, K. M., Buchner, J., Grötschel, M., & Jurburg, S. (2025). Ein neues Verfahren zur direkten Finanzierung wissenschaftlicher Publikationen (Discussion paper No. 38). https://doi.org/10.26164/LEOPOLDINA_03_01261.
Suggested citation
Benz, M., Shangguan, W., Stork, K. (2026). Collective and Scholar-Led: New Diamond Open Access Offerings. open-access.network. DOI: 10.64395/8eh5e-fr054
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0).
