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Global Summit on Diamond Open Access concludes with pledges to advance Diamond OA initiatives globally

03/11/2023

Toluca, Mexico – The Global Summit on Diamond Open Access, held in Toluca, México, and online, from 23 to 27 October 2023, concluded with resounding success and pledges towards fostering the Diamond Open Access scholarly communication ecosystem.

Organised by Redalyc, UAEMéx, AmeliCA, UNESCO, CLACSO, UÓR, ANR, cOAlition S, OPERAS, and Science Europe, the Summit brought together Diamond OA stakeholders from across the world for the first time, all united in their commitment to promoting the quality, sustainability, usability, and equity of access to scholarly communication.

Over the course of four days, a total of 700 attendees to all three main events – the Redalyc Journal Editors International Conference, the AmeliCA Members Meeting, and the 2nd Diamond Open Access Conference – engaged in extensive and insightful discussions on various Diamond OA initiatives and practices, with emphasis on policy development, governance, research evaluation, and sustainability.

Recognising the diverse nature of Diamond OA journals, repositories, and platforms, as necessitated by various research disciplines, as well as the varying capacities among different stakeholders globally, the Summit emphasised the critical need for enhanced collaboration within the Diamond OA sector at a global scale. Such collaboration, as concluded during the Summit, is fundamental to widespread sharing of knowledge, which stands as our most valuable asset and a public good for the benefit of all.

Under the themes of ‘Diamond Open Access Scientific Publishing: a Common and Public Good’ and ‘Developing a roadmap towards diamond scholarly communication infrastructure’, the summit saw dynamic discussions that aimed to develop ownership and leadership of the community over scholarly content and to create conditions for a global federated Diamond Open Access Network.

Looking to the future, Eduardo Aguado, former Director General of Redalyc said: “We support a global dialogue in the Diamond OA sector, building upon the momentum generated by the Summit, to deliver scholarly knowledge free of access for authors and readers.”

The newly appointed Executive Director of Redalyc (now including the responsibilities of the former Director General), Arianna Becerril García, highlighted that different world regions face different circumstances: “In Latin America, the Redalyc journals’ editors community and AmeliCA members recognise the need to push forward the Diamond Open Access infrastructure and have expressed their commitment to non-commercial Open Access via the ‘Manifesto for Science as a global public good: non-commercial OA.”

The Secretary General of Science Europe, Lidia Borrell-Damián, expressed conviction about the collective momentum generated during the summit: “The Global Diamond Open Access Summit marks a pivotal moment in our shared journey towards a sustainable and inclusive future. The commitments and partnerships forged here will serve as the bedrock for transformative change on a global scale.”

Johan Rooryck, Executive Director of cOAlition S, stated: “The Diamond Open Access Summit marks a huge step in the direction of globally equitable Open Access. We are ready to support all efforts to make the global federation of Diamond Open Access a reality.”

“The Summit has solidified our shared conviction that the Diamond Open Access initiative necessitates our unity and collaboration in forging a robust alliance. Together, we are well positioned to advance the agreement we reached here, in Toluca, substantially enhancing global access to knowledge for researchers, educators, and policy makers”, added Bhanu Neupane, Communication and Information Advisor, Universal Access Section to Information and Digital Inclusion, UNESCO.

The ‘Conclusions and Way Forward’ document is available online. Further highlights and individual conclusions from each event will be released shortly. We encourage those interested in learning more about these outcomes to visit globaldiamantoa.org.