D5.2 National overviews on sustaining institutional publishing in Europe

The richness of Diamond Open Access (OA) publishing is characterised by its diversity: from the wide-ranging disciplines it serves in multiple languages to the types of organisations and networks involved in developing, running or maintaining it. Local,  regional and national interests driving it are underpinned by the context of the country’s  publishing industry and national political, social, and economic OA priorities, policies, and practices. Understanding the current state and potential future of Diamond OA publishing across the European Research Area is a key goal of the DIAMAS project. This report presents research findings in the early 2024 context of Diamond OA publishing in 10 countries from across the various regions of Europe. 

This report shows how national contexts differ and create unique conditions for Diamond OA publishing in each country. Diamond OA particularly flourishes in countries with strong community leadership and public funding. In some countries, national journal publishing is financially supported through public financing to maintain a prosperous and locally relevant scholarly communication environment in national languages, often realised through Diamond OA publishing. In countries where institutional publishers are coordinated at the national level, more public funding may be available for Diamond OA. However, this is not necessarily a condition for robust national infrastructures to support Diamond publishing. Creating conditions for Diamond OA publishing to flourish in a national context requires recognising the following factors:

● The role of Diamond OA in the scholarly publishing landscape differs across countries

Large mature Diamond publishing platforms have been developed through collaboration and are mature in France and Croatia. Most publishers operate on the basis of not-for-profit models in Croatia, and Diamond OA journals predominate. Learned societies are also a significant driving force among Diamond OA publishers in Poland, and especially in Finland, where a national umbrella organisation coordinates learned societies. The scholarly publishing landscape in the UK has become notably diverse over the last decade as new university presses and scholar-led publishers that offer Diamond publishing or related services have emerged on the scene. However, Gold and Hybrid remain the dominant OA models nationally. Academic institutions and their libraries are the most prevalent Diamond journal publishers here. Some well-established large commercial publisher communities in certain countries, such as Germany, have yet to transition from Gold or hybrid to Diamond OA publishing. Many countries have limited quantitative data on the number of Diamond journals, which speaks to the need for better discovery and indexing services for these types of publications internationally.

● Diamond OA is by and for the national community

Collaboration between higher education institutions and research funders is vital for OA publishing industries to flourish and a condition for Diamond OA. The level at which institutional publishers are coordinated within a country varies between national contexts. Bottom-up initiatives promote and enable Diamond OA in several national contexts. Croatia is exemplary in demonstrating how national OA publishing in small countries can almost exclusively follow the Diamond model when serving the national community. In Norway, a consortium for journal funding organises the funding through a central model. In Finland, a robust national umbrella organisation for learned societies is a crucial driving force for delivering technical services, distributing public financing, and speaking to policymakers on behalf of institutional publishers. In contrast, even though the quality of journals is evaluated by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education in Poland, scholarly publishing in this country is notably decentralised.

● Diamond OA must be incentivised

Researchers in Norway and the Netherlands are incentivised to publish OA via the national research assessment systems, while in Finland, OA is incentivised through the funding model of public higher education institutions. Strategic changes to research evaluation in the Netherlands support the national transition to 100% open science, especially by rewarding researchers who have an open science track record. Spain is one of several countries where the primary research funding bodies require that publications from publicly-funded research and the data necessary to validate them be deposited in open access repositories. However, in Italy, the relatively small presence and limited monitoring of Diamond OA publishing reflects the fact that researchers are not incentivised to publish OA. Comparing the state of institutional publishing in different European countries reveals a connection between research evaluation practices and Diamond OA publishing. 

● Public funding is necessary for IPSPs and infrastructures that enable Diamond

Across Europe, more institutional funding needs to be directed towards Diamond. Public research funding in Norway requires that all nationally funded journals comply with the Diamond OA business model. This form of organised national support for Diamond OA differs from most other countries. In Poland, institutional publishers are primarily institutionally funded, while government funds are available to those striving to increase their impact or quality rather than those publishing OA. Some universities/libraries fund Diamond OA publishing independently of national funding bodies. Community-led and publicly-funded infrastructures enable the prevalence of Diamond OA publishing in Croatia. A very high level of collaboration in France has created a system of national infrastructures for OA, but these infrastructures are still underfunded. Even as 
this sector grows, as in the UK, thanks to institutional and library support, dedicated public funding is still needed to extend the reach of Diamond publishers and service providers. 

● National strategies for open science can, but do not always, promote Diamond publishing

Some countries have developed effective strategies to achieve their open science goals via robust, centralised mandates. In the UK, despite the absence of national funding to support Diamond OA journals or publishing platforms (although a funding programme for Diamond OA books exists), government and research funders have had a pivotal role in driving the shift towards OA since 2003. Norway has a long-term plan for research and higher education that includes OA promotion and, specifically, a transition to Diamond OA publishing for 
journals. This stands apart from the national plans of other countries like Spain, where Diamond is not yet prioritised over other routes to OA publication.