Scoping Report on Non-for-profit Publishing Ecosystems

Abstract:  This scoping report is designed to achieve two goals. First, it intends to establish common defi nitions and terminology that will be used consistently within the ALMASI project, providing a cohesive analysis and clearly defi ning what is within and outside the project's scope. In a project that comprises the publishing landscapes of three separate international regions (Africa, Europe, Latin America) it is essential that sufficient common ground and understanding is built before proceeding. Secondly, this report proposes a mapping component that leverages existing literature and bibliometric data sources to provide an overview of the current knowledge on Diamond OA publishing activities in these three regions. The holistic analytical perspective adopted by this report tightly revolves around fi ve foundational concepts: Funding mechanisms, Organisational structures & governance models, Platforms, Solutions and services, and Output types (i. e., journals, articles, books, and preprints). The report collects and summarises the available knowledge for these central concepts in each of the three regions, providing some fundamental insights into similarities and differences in the way in which they are operationalised to support Diamond OA publishing. The initial mapping exercise revealed an asymmetry in documented knowledge across the three regions, with the literature and systematic analysis for Europe being markedly more comprehensive. This richness in the European profi le stems largely from extensive, recent, policy-driven projects (like DIAMAS) that provided detailed, systematic overviews of institutional Diamond Open Access publishing efforts, covering governance, funding, and technical solutions. In contrast, the documentation on scholarly communication for Africa is more fragmented, leading to less information that typically can only be found embedded in case studies. While Latin America possesses a consolidated Diamond OA landscape built on strong university-led, non-commercial infrastructures (e.g., SciELO, Redalyc, Latindex, AmeliCA), the mapped literature does not yet offer the same systematic granularity as the latest European project deliverables. Consequently, the current fi ndings provide by necessity a somewhat limited picture of the full ecosystem. This disparity both illustrates and confi rms the need for further exploration and documentation in future research. The lack of an existing comprehensive registry of Diamond OA journals that are active in the regions necessitated the aggregation of a number of openly available international and national datasets that allowed for collating the most comprehensive representation of Diamond OA journal publishing activity in the regions. As expected, the three regions have various diverging characteristics, and appear to have organised Diamond OA publishing in different ways. In total we were able to identify 20,355 Diamond OA journals across the three regions, with 13,202 being based in Europe, 5,821 in Latin America, and 1,351 in Africa. Among the utilised international bibliometric indexing services OpenAlex contributed with the most comprehensive and unique coverage for Diamond OA journals across all three regions, however, using any of the current international indexing services has limitations and unevenness when considering how comprehensively they include content from the three regions. A common trait among the Diamond OA journals across all the three regions is that research institutions are the most common type of organisation acting in the role of publisher, highlighting the role that universities globally have particularly for this model of publishing. As one of the fi rst deliverables of the ALMASI project, this report lays the foundations for well-informed continued work that takes into account the different profi les of the three regions, enabling customised inquiries and interventions to take place as the project unfolds.