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- Free-to-publish, free-to-read diamond OA may improve equity in publication opportunities, but uptake may be held back as authors are attracted to non-diamond journals with an established reputation.<\/li>\n
- Questions remain around whether diamond OA will reduce the costs of publishing overall.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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<\/p>\nOpen access (OA) is key to making research more accessible<\/a>, with gold OA ever-growing: it accounted for 42% of Web of Science-indexed publications in 2023. In a recent article<\/a> in Research Professional News<\/a>, published by Clarivate, Ulrich Herb and Benedikt Schmal highlight that gold OA is no stranger to scrutiny. Article processing charges (APCs<\/a>) can pose equity issues<\/a>, and transformative agreements<\/a> have not shifted the OA landscape as hoped. Diamond OA<\/a>, providing both free-to-publish and free-to-read articles, has been hailed as a solution by funders, libraries, and OA advocates; however, it may not provide a complete fix.<\/p>\n
Money, money, money<\/strong><\/p>\n
Herb and Schmal debate whether, on balance, diamond OA will lower the costs of publishing compared with the current landscape. They note that journals have many costs, including:<\/p>\n
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- managing peer review, editing, and quality control<\/li>\n
- operational infrastructure<\/li>\n
- indexing and archiving<\/li>\n
- training and capacity building<\/li>\n
- marketing and outreach.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Despite this long list, Herb and Schmal suggest that many assume large commercial publishers and non-profit outfits have the same costs. Think again. Diamond OA publishers are unlikely to replicate economies of scale at larger publishers, so face higher costs. By their nature, non-profit publishers also lack motivations to reduce costs to widen profit margins.<\/p>\n
Is reputation everything?<\/strong><\/p>\n
Diamond OA levels the financial playing field for authors, but Herb and Schmal ask whether this will truly provide equity. With reputation often a key factor in journal selection, the authors question whether there is sufficient appetite for new diamond OA journals: these would need to compete with established rivals to build their reputation and gain broader appeal.<\/p>\n
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Diamond OA levels the financial playing field for authors, but Herb and Schmal ask whether this will truly provide equity.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Herb and Schmal push for a pragmatic assessment of diamond OA models to establish their viability and sustainability \u2013 or note that OA advocates once again risk disappointment.<\/p>\n
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