Resurrection of the betrayal: Diamond Open Access assuming a commercial model | UCT Libraries

"In April 2022, there were assertions made in College and Research Libraries News about the betrayal of Africa by the openness movement. The focus was on the assertion that every time a silver lining appears on the horizon, it is swiftly snuffed out by the global north, whose reimagining of what is championed as progressive open access models resulted only in further retrogression for Africa.

The rain clouds have passed, and the desert remains parched. When open access first appeared on the horizon, Africa ran to the hills, hailing OA as the long-awaited saviour for active participation in the knowledge ecosystem - the knowledge rain for a parched knowledge region. The dissipation of the clouds came with the APC model, exacerbated by systemic biases in the global north dominated publishing ecosystem, which brought back the despair. The drifting rain clouds renewed the research ‘parchness’ and the long-standing problems of a loss of ownership, diminished dignity, and unequal participation in the scholarly ecosystem.

Our Latin American colleagues quietly cultivated their own rain through diamond open access. The model blossomed, not in the shadow of commercial giants but in the soil of community ownership, transformation, inclusivity and cooperation. As transformative agreements in the global north began haemorrhaging support, the global north sought refuge in the success of the diamond OA model being rolled out in Latin America. The helicoptering of the diamond model from Latin America to Europe did not always carry with it the sense of communityism bringing forth a revised version of diamond open access. The Ubuntuism of diamond OA was untangled and discarded. In its place emerged the reimagined not-for-profit version of diamond open access: a model destined to resurrect the betrayal of the earlier versions of open access."