ALMASI Talking points for Diamond OA

How can we convince key stakeholders to invest in and help advance Diamond OA? What reasons will persuade RPOs, scholarly societies, libraries, IPSPs, RFOs, national and institutional policymakers, and the OA community at large to choose Diamond OA? For each of Africa, Europe, and Latin America, there are essential and effective arguments in favour of Diamond OA. 

Through desk research and engagement with stakeholders at the Diamond OA Policy Forum launch event, we have identified some essential talking points. These are in English, and those from Latin America are also provided in Spanish. They are categorised under six thematic questions, including

●           How is Diamond OA effective?

●           Why fund Diamond OA and its infrastructure?

●           What action must be taken to support Diamond OA?

●           What are the risks of inaction?

●           How financially sustainable is Diamond OA?

●           What needs funding?

Some talking points are common to all three regions: There is broad consensus that Diamond Open Access is an equitable public good that supports diverse, multilingual scholarly communication, but its sustainability depends on strong governance and funding. Achieving this requires collective action through shared responsibility, advocacy, collaboration across stakeholders, and investment in training, networks, and human capacity.   

For each talking point in the lists below, the stakeholders for whom that argument resonates have been identified. For instance, a Diamond OA advocate seeking to persuade funders of the value of Diamond OA should use those talking points with ‘RFOs’ as a stakeholder. This identification helps stakeholders pinpoint more easily arguments that resonate with them, but we understand that some will ring true more than others as they are also context dependent.

The lists of arguments and talking points related to Diamond OA will grow as ALMASI continues its work on Diamond OA in the three regions and engages stakeholders. We will add to the talking points collected here over the course of the project as the discourse develops to ensure that when change occurs, we use arguments that resonate and strengthen our cause: to scale up Diamond OA.