EIFL - Financial sustainability planning toolkit for Diamond Open Access journals

This toolkit helps editorial teams plan the finances of Diamond Open Access journals. These are journals that charge neither authors nor readers. It was developed for the EIFL Diamond OA sustainability planning programme, which supports eight African Diamond OA journal grantees in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and Togo, funded by Wellcome. It is also intended for others supporting Diamond OA journals in Africa and beyond, such as librarians, faculty advocates, institutional sponsors and other journals.

The toolkit turns good practice in Diamond OA financial sustainability into practical questions, criteria and prompts. Journals can use these to build a complete, credible three-year sustainability plan for parent institutions, funders and their own editorial communities. It does not tell journals what their plan should say. Instead it helps them check that the plan is complete, well-evidenced and convincing to the people who will read it. 

The toolkit deals only with financial sustainability. It recognises that sustainability also depends on knowledge equity, community engagement, and technology and innovation, following the four-pillar framework of Kwanya and Ateka (2026). Where those areas affect the financial plan, it refers readers to further guidance.

The toolkit was prepared by Research Consulting for EIFL. It draws on DIAMAS project outputs, EIFL's research on no-fee OA publishing in Africa, the wider evidence base on Diamond OA costs and revenues, and the operating experience of the participating journals. An AI language model was used for research support and initial drafting, and the Research Consulting team reviewed all content.