In order to share the costs of publishing research results in OA journals, KOALA - Konsortiale Open-Access-Lösungen aufbauen (Establishing Consortial Open Access Solutions) offers a collaborative funding programme for diamond open access. Libraries, research institutions, foundations, companies and individuals can agree to cover the costs of a compilation of subject-specific scientific journals for a certain period of time during the funding request process. If enough supporters come together, the funding is successful. The funding goal for the KOALA Mathematics and Computer Science 2024-2026 journal bundle has now been reached. 54 institutions form the funding consortium. They guarantee the publication of the six journals supported in the bundle for the next three years in open access, without any fees for the authors. Worldwide free access to the publications published during this period will be maintained even after the term.
How does the collaborative funding work?
In the KOALA programme, participants can contribute to the funding of the journals or journal bundles. The prices for the individual bundles are determined on the basis of the financial needs of the journals and journal series that they report to KOALA for the sustainable operation of their publication. For each bundle there is a tiering system, to which participating supporters can assign themselves according to their size. The journals and publication series then receive funding from the KOALA consortium over three years. If the specified number of supporters is reached, they contribute according to their size and the volume of the bundled publications. Before the end of the three-year period, a new "pledging phase" will be launched to finance the journals and publication series for another three years. If there are not enough supporters, KOALA will not fund the journals.
- To the KOALA press release (in German): https://projects.tib.eu/koala/news/detail/koala-buendel-mathematik-informatik-2024-2026-finanziert/