New blog "Collective and Scholar-Led: New Diamond Open Access Offerings" | open-access.network

Benz, M., Shangguan, W., Stork, K. (2026). Collective and Scholar-Led: New Diamond Open Access Offerings. open-access.network. DOI: 10.64395/8eh5e-fr054

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As in the previous funding phase, the implementation of diamond open access remains an important thematic focus for open-access.network. Two open-access.network events on the organisation and funding of diamond open access took place in the middle of June. They show that community-led diamond open access is being facilitated by various initiatives in different disciplinary contexts – a dynamic development that raises hope for a sustainable and scholar-led open access transformation.

At the first event in this series, which took place on 10 June, several consortial funding offerings and the Diamond Funding Navigator introduced themselves. Following these introductory presentations, participants had an opportunity to talk to representatives of the initiatives at virtual exhibition stands. At the second event, which took place on 11 June within the framework of the series oa.talk, the Open Journals Collective, the Open Book Collective, and Thoth Open Metadata presented their offerings. 

Diverse Consortial Funding Offerings

In her introductory talk at the beginning of the first event, Juliane Finger, who in her capacity as Open Access Representative of the Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (ZBW) is responsible for the project SeDOA (National Service Centre for Diamond Open Access), discussed the results of the SeDOA Needs Survey and the relevance of the issue of financing. While various models for funding diamond open access are being discussed (see Mittermaier, 2026; Tautz et al., 2025), many journals that want to switch to a diamond open access model struggle with limited resources. Solving the funding question is therefore a key component in enabling a flip to diamond open access. Consortial funding models address this issue by offering a way of supporting journals by organising funding consortia, which are supported mostly by scholarly libraries. 

After the introductory talk, several consortial funding initiatives were presented – namely, the Open Library Economics (OLEcon), KOALA TIB, and two offerings supported by specialised information services (FID), edu_consort_oa and FID Media. Located at the ZBW and financed via a project funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR), OLEcon supports economics journals in obtaining consortial funding. KOALA TIB organises funding consortia for scholarly journals from technical disciplines. In doing so, it is continuing the service for these disciplines that was developed within the framework of the project KOALA and expanded in the follow-up project KOALA-AV. This has led to the development of consortial funding initiatives based on the KOALA model, for example an initiative on the part of FID Media that focuses on journals in the field of media studies.

Located at the Specialised Information Service (FID) for Educational Science and Research, the project edu_consort_oa organises funding for books and journals in education science and has already succeeded in converting open access books and journals to a diamond open access model. 

The Diamond Funding Navigator (DFN), which is being developed at the Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology University Library (TIB) in Hannover, provides an overview of these and other initiatives. The DFN enables user