Global Summit on Diamond Open Access concludes with pledges to advance Diamond OA initiatives globally
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 (and also attached). 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.
Event Details
- Date: Monday 23 October 2023 – Friday 27 October 2023
- Location: Toluca, Mexico state, Mexico, Ciudad Universitaria, UAEMEX, and online at globaldiamantoa.org
- Organisers: Redalyc, UAEMéx, AmeliCA, UNESCO, CLACSO, UÓR, ANR, cOAlition S, OPERAS, and Science Europe.
- Programme: globaldiamantoa.org/en/program
Media Contact
Katel Le Floc’h, Press officer – ANR
katel.lefloch(at)agencerecherche.fr
About the Organisers
- Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México (UAEMéx) is a prominent educational institution located in the State of Mexico, Mexico. UAEMéx has established itself as a benchmark for academic excellence and social commitment among public universities in the region. The university stands out for promoting values such as responsibility, inclusion, diversity, and respect, thus shaping professionals with a global perspective and a commitment to their surroundings.
- Redalyc Scientific Information System, is an academic platform that emerged in 2002 with a mission to contribute to the dissemination of scientific knowledge within the Ibero-American community. Based in Mexico, Redalyc is committed to promoting Open Access to research and academic publications, facilitating the free access, distribution, and exchange of knowledge. Through a vast digital library and online repository, Redalyc hosts an extensive collection of scientific articles and journals covering diverse disciplines. It acts as a hub, connecting authors, researchers, and academics with a global audience, allowing them to share their findings and insights with the broader academic community.
- AmeliCA is a communication infrastructure for scholarly publishing and open science. Sustained cooperatively, this initiative focuses on a non-profit publishing model to preserve the scholarly and open nature of scientific communication. In August 2019, however, faced with a regional context where platforms, science national councils, academic institutions and part of the scholarly community look down on local publishing by being compliant with commercial publishers’ strategies, and in the presence of an international context where a wide range of initiatives define open science as a route, AmeliCA and Redalyc took concerted action to strengthen the non-profit publishing model to preserve the scholarly and open nature of scientific communication —also known as diamond model— beyond the Global South.
- United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations focused on promoting peace and international collaboration through education, science, culture, and communication. Its main objective is to build the intellectual and moral foundation for a just and peaceful society, fostering understanding and tolerance among nations. Furthermore, it aims to ensure universal access to knowledge and culture, promoting diversity and the preservation of cultural heritage.
- Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales (CLACSO) is a prestigious academic institution based in Latin America and the Caribbean. It serves as a network of research centers and institutes, fostering social science research and knowledge exchange. CLACSO focuses on addressing key social, economic, and political challenges in the region, promoting interdisciplinary research, and supporting a vast community of scholars, academics, and institutions. It plays a vital role in advancing critical thinking and societal understanding, aiming to contribute to a more equitable and inclusive society through the lens of social sciences.
- Óscar Ribas University (UOR) was created and promoted by the PITABEL Group - Prestação de Serviços, whose social purpose translates into the provision of services, including education at all levels.
- The French National Research Agency (ANR) is a public institution under the authority of the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research. It is the project-based research funding agency in France, with the mission of supporting and promoting the development of basic and applied research across all disciplines, on both the national, European, and international levels. It also funds technological innovation and technology transfer, promotes partnerships between research teams in the public and private sectors, and strengthens dialogue between science and society. In addition, the ANR is the primary operator for France 2030 in the field of higher education and research, for which it selects, funds, and monitors projects, notably including initiatives of excellence, research infrastructure, and support for developing and promoting research. The ANR is ISO 9001 certified for all of its processes relating to “project selection,” and has also received the “professional equality” label.
- cOAlition S is an international consortium of research funding and performing organisations supporting Plan S, an initiative for Open Access publishing that was launched in September 2018. Plan S requires that, with effect from 2021, all scholarly publications on the results from research funded by public or private grants provided by national, regional, and international research councils and funding bodies must be published in Open Access Journals, on Open Access Platforms, or made immediately available through Open Access Repositories without embargo.
- Science Europe is the Brussels-based association that represents major public organisations that fund and perform excellent, ground-breaking research in Europe. It brings together the expertise of some of the largest and most respected European research organisations to jointly push the frontiers of how scientific research is produced and delivers benefits to society.
- OPERAS is the Research Infrastructure supporting open scholarly communication in the social sciences and humanities (SSH) in the European Research Area. Its mission is to coordinate and federate resources in Europe to efficiently address the scholarly communication needs of European researchers in the field of SSH.
