In the 2010s, the scientific community invented the Diamond Open Access publishing model in response to abuses in the scientific publishing sector, which is dominated by commercial publishers.
Numerous horizontal mergers took place in the field of scientific publishing in the 1990s and again in the 2000s with the rise of open access. This has led to a situation in which several international groups (e.g. Elsevier, Frontiers, MDPI, Wiley) now have a monopoly on disseminating scientific knowledge and are abusing their economic dominance.
The Diamond OA model was devised in response by the scientific community. It aims to:
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To return control of scientific dissemination to researchers, as this is an integral part of the scientific process;
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To ensure that the resources provided by research-funding institutions (often public and therefore taxpayer-funded) effectively serve the objective of scientific dissemination and the implementation of higher-quality scientific criteria.
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To preserve the intellectual property rights of researchers over their published work.
The Diamond OA model is essentially an ethical approach to scientific publication.1 It is a non-profit model that responds only to scientific considerations. Designed by researchers for researchers, it aims to respect all stakeholders, including authors, readers and institutions.
The Diamond Open Access principles can be summarised as follows:
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A business model that does not charge authors Article Processing Charges (APCs); does not require subscriptions from readers; is stable because it is partially or fully funded by institutional and public resources.
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A non-profit economy: any profits made by the journal will be fully reinvested in its development.
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The use of Creative Commons licences (CC-BY) ensures that authors retain the intellectual property rights to their work.
We are currently at a crossroads, with several international organisations strongly encouraging countries to adopt the Diamond Open Access (OA) model. In 2023, for instance, the Council of the European Union emphasised that Diamond OA was one of its priorities for disseminating research, yet stressed that member states must contribute to this structural change.2 Against this backdrop, the EU has funded various projects focusing on the analysis and development of Diamond OA (e.g. DIAMAS and OPERAS3), while some member states have already initiated efforts to foster a Diamond OA ecosystem (e.g. Finland, France, Germany and the Netherlands4). The G7 Summit in Sendai in May 2023 also indicated that Diamond OA is key to the future of scientific dissemination.5 Meanwhile, UNESCO has conducted a global survey on Diamond OA, emphasising that it is the solution to breaking down the economic barriers that still exist between different regions of the world in terms of scientific dissemination.6
CMC wants to play its part in the global shift towards Diamond OA by acting as a proof of concept. High-quality Diamond OA journals in STM are rare internationally. CMC’s aim is to demonstrate through its success that the Diamond OA model is viable, desirable and sustainable in STM as well.