Are Scholars' Publishing Choices Fueling the Crisis in Scholarly Journal Publishing?

Academic publishing is in crisis. The prominence of commercial publishers has made the laudable goal of open access (OA) unaffordable through expensive article processing charges (APCs). Even as institutions offset costs through “read and publish” agreements, academic publishing models remain a drain on the research enterprise. Simply put, the costs to publish, OA or otherwise, are not sustainable.

While commercial publisher profits are a central problem, scholars also share responsibility. Academia rewards publishing in high-cost, prestigious journals, reinforcing commercial dominance. Scholars’ publishing choices help sustain a reward system that prioritizes impact metrics over access, equity, and knowledge as a public good. Choosing to publish in commercial journals reinforces their dominance. Fortunately, there are alternatives.

Diamond open access offers a community-owned, non-commercial model with no fees for authors or readers. These journals, often supported by academic institutions, libraries, or scholarly communities, prioritize equity, openness, and scholar-led governance.

Open Journal Systems (OJS), a community-owned, open-source platform, has been instrumental in enabling this model. Used by over 55,000 journals worldwide, OJS supports about 60% of all diamond OA journals globally. This widespread adoption demonstrates not only the scalability and sustainability of the platform, but also the global appetite for an inclusive, non-commercial alternative to legacy publishing models.

In this lightning talk, we’ll use data about journals using OJS to show the breadth of diamond OA journals available to researchers across disciplines, and why researchers' choices matter.

This is a call to action to change our publishing practices: from supporting models that extract, to systems that empower.