The University of Groningen (UG) sees diamond open access as a sustainable, affordable and fair model for scholarly publishing. It is committed to supporting trustworthy diamond open access initiatives. In addition, a stimulus fund to support diamond open access journals or publication platforms that have a strong connection with the UG has been established and will run until August 2023.

What is diamond open access?

Diamond open access initiatives (journals, publication platforms, etc.) do not charge subscriptions fees, nor publication fees to authors. They are free to access/read and free to publish in (no Article Processing Charges or Book Processing Charges). These initiatives are usually non-profit and scholarly-led.

Diamond open access initiatives operate on a smaller scale compared to commercial players and their operating costs are usually a fraction of those associated with pay-to-publish open access. These initiatives rely on external funding to remain operational, with funds mostly coming from university libraries, academic institutions, research funders or government grants.

Support for international diamond open access initiatives

The University of Groningen Library provides financial support to various international diamond open access initiatives and open access infrastructures.

Fund aimed at local (UG) diamond open access initiatives

The University of Groningen has a stimulus fund to support diamond open access initiatives by UG/UMCG researchers. The fund can be used to expand and improve existing initiatives (e.g. professionalizing or scaling-up a scholar-led journal, etc.) or to create new ones (e.g. setting up a new journal or flipping an existing journal to diamond open access).