oa.blog: What is the Open Journals Collective?

Tom Shaw: During my time as an academic librarian in the UK, I worked in a number of libraries where we developed new strategic approaches to library collections and open research. Yet turning our thinking into reality proved far more challenging than creating the strategy. We wanted to invest in alternatives to paywalls and APCs, but the only way to do this was supporting small scale initiatives, typically from individual publishers. There wasn’t really a viable way to invest in alternatives at a scale that could start to change the publishing landscape itself. But there is now! In the words of OJC’s Executive Director, Caroline Edwards, OJC provides “an equitable, sustainable, community-led alternative to the big deals offered by corporate academic publishers”.

 OJC is not a publisher itself. We support existing diamond open access journals and provide sustainability and longevity, rather than trying to be another diamond open access publisher. OJC provides an alternative ‘big deal’ for libraries, that is built on different values, a different ethos and a different business model to big deals from the major commercial publishers. Essentially, we are working to support what already exists and bring it into the mainstream. And, ultimately, we are building an exit ramp for libraries from Transformative Agreements, where funding can be transitioned away from the major commercial models into community-owned nonprofit diamond open access publishing.

oa.blog: How does the OJC model function in practice?

TS: By joining OJC, libraries can invest in diamond open access at scale and support the long-term sustainability of nonprofit diamond journals. The membership fees paid by libraries are used to provide funding for the journals in our collection, giving them a sustainable future.

Libraries can choose to support the full Multidisciplinary Collection (278 journals) or just the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences titles (198 journals) or just the STEM titles (80 journals), depending on their disciplinary focus. Membership fees are split into Small, Medium and Large sizes, based on student full time equivalent (FTE) numbers, and libraries can opt to support at higher priced levels of Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum as well as at the standard membership level. Journals in the OJC collection need to meet a range of criteria, such as being community or academic led, and being indexed in the Directory of Open Access Journals.

 We’ve also recently introduced a new way for libraries and other types of organisation to support us: our Supporters Programme. This allows libraries to invest in OJC on a one-off basis, at an amount of their choosing, with no recurring commitment. Library membership remains the core route for libraries to invest in OJC, but the Supporters Programme provides added flexibility, and its creation was prompted by feedback from some libraries that the cost of full membership was a barrier.

oa.blog: You drew a comparison between the OJC and an exit ramp from commercial publishing models. However, there already exist several other diamond open access services, particularly institutional infrastructures, such as university presses. What makes the OJC stand out among those other exit ramps?

TS: At OJC we work with a range of existing open access publishers, so our model is grounded in collaboration with other diamond open access services. This is part of what makes us different. We allow libraries to support a wide range of existing diamond journals at a greater scale than has been possible before. We are also a global organisation, with a fully international scope, whereas many existing initiatives apply only in a particular country or region. But we also see value in a diverse and vibrant open publishing ecosystem, where many initiatives - large and small, local and global - are working towards a shared goal. We believe we have the potential to change journal publishing significantly, but we are by no means the only catalyst that can deliver that change.

It is because we work with a range of existing publishers that OJC funding is specifically designed to complement, and not duplicate, any existing sources of funding that a journal receives. Many of our journals already have existing funding, some of which comes from library membership programmes, such as those operated by the Open Library of Humanities and Érudit. These journals are only eligible for a reduced amount of top-up funding, which still provides a valuable role. It tackles the reliance on unpaid labour in nonprofit publishing and ensures greater parity with the commercial sector by providing funding that can be used for functions such as copy editing and graphic design. Libraries can be confident that by joining OJC they will never be duplicating funding that a journal already receives.

oa.blog: What has been the response to your service so far?

TS: We have been delighted by the response of the library community internationally. Our vision for OJC has clearly resonated in a very meaningful way and the feedback so far has been overwhelmingly positive. Moreover, we are thrilled to have welcomed 47 library members since January of this year. We’re very conscious of the financial pressures facing many libraries across the world, and we thoroughly appreciate the efforts our members have made to join. We have 25 member libraries in the UK, 17 in the US, one in Australia, and a growing number in continental Europe - including our first member in Germany, Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB).

Financially, we are at 74% of our income target for 2026, and have raised £1,974,355 (€2,298,544). We’ve also recently been awarded a $711,900 grant by the Gates Foundation, which will enable us to scale our operations in 2027 and 2028.

oa.blog: How will you grow the OJC collection of journals?

TS: Our initial launch collection contains 278 journals, but we are already working to grow this further. Our publishing partners have nominated new titles from their publishing portfolios to join our collection and receive financial support for next year and onwards. We are also expanding the range of publishing partners we work with, and following an open call earlier this year eight new publishers are in the process of joining OJC. We are, however, committed to growing sustainably, and any growth in our collections will need to be proportionate to our income from library membership.

Supporting existing diamond journals is only part of the story. Central to our approach is providing support for journals to ‘flip’ to diamond from subscription or APC models. We’ll provide financial support for the transition, but also support that goes beyond money. Where journals need a new home with an existing diamond publisher, we can help them make connections. And if journal editors need support, mentorship and reassurance from editors who have flipped a journal before, we can help with this too.

In order for diamond open access to grow into the mainstream we need to support the transition of  high-profile journals to the diamond model. We are conscious that the prestige ascribed to venues of publication, and the correlation this has with academic status and career advancement is problematic. However, diamond open access can only achieve its true potential, if existing titles that authors want to publish in transform their business models. And where there is desire from an editorial board to leave their existing commercial publisher, we feel it is right to support this route.

oa.blog: What are your priorities as OJC grows and develops? What strategic objectives are guiding this process, and are there any specific projects currently underway?

TS: Ultimately, we want to grow OJC into a significant international movement to change academic publishing for the better. However, we are very conscious that this will not happen automatically. Although many libraries clearly share our values and support our vision, it can be a complex and lengthy journey for them to repurpose budgets away from commercial big deals to invest in diamond open access. We need to work in partnership with our library members to build OJC into the exit ramp from Transformative Agreements that we want it to be.

Part of how we intend to do this is our collective approach to the governance of OJC. Each of our library members is given a seat on our Library Board, which gives them significant influence over the running and future direction of the organisation. The Library Board sits alongside our Publisher and Academic Boards, which are supported by a range of vibrant and active working groups. Our library members are our partners and collaborators, as opposed to being mere transactional customers. Through this approach we are building a culture that is in stark contrast to what many libraries experience in the commercial world, where it’s not uncommon to have no contact with a vendor until it’s time to pay another invoice. Building this collective approach into a genuinely different way of running an organisation is key to OJC as we grow.

A related priority for us is to deepen our collaboration with other nonprofit organisations working in open access publishing. Although we are confident of our potential to have a meaningful impact on academic publishing, we cannot do this in isolation. We have a particularly strong relationship with the Open Book Collective, reflected in a Memorandum of Understanding between our two organisations and in shared initiatives such as our Impact Dashboard project (see below).

In other areas, the ability to understand the impact and return on investment of OJC library membership is essential for libraries, both to make a case for joining and to support decisions about renewal. We are working to provide quantitative and qualitative routes for this. Firstly, we are currently developing an Impact Dashboard for OJC’s journals, as part of a joint project with the Open Book Collective. The Impact Dashboard will be a fully open source platform that provides data about our journals, including the institutional affiliations of authors and editors, OJC publications by country, usage data and citation data. Crucially, the dashboard will allow libraries to answer key questions about their institution, such as how many of their academics have published in OJC journals. On the qualitative side, each time we provide funding to our journals they will report back to us on how they spent the funding, what the impact of it was for their journal, and what it enabled them to do that they wouldn’t have been able to afford to do otherwise. This will provide a narrative for libraries to illustrate the direct impact of their investment in OJC.

oa.blog: To wrap things up, here’s a rather simple question: How can libraries that are interested in your work – and perhaps even in becoming members – get more information and get in touch with you?

TS: We would love to hear from libraries wherever you are! Please visit openjournalscollective.org for more information and to sign up to receive our newsletter. If you want to know more about library membership email thomas.shaw@openjournalscollective.org (OJC’s Library Engagement Lead) to arrange a video call. I will be attending Open-Access-Tage 2026 in Linz and will be presenting and co-delivering a workshop. Please email if you are attending and would like to arrange to meet and talk about OJC!

Shaw, T., (2026): “Open Journals Collective: Building a sustainable future for diamond open access journals." open-access.network. DOI: 10.64395/qp2y0-p8d85