EIFL, AJOL (African Journals Online) and WACREN (the West and Central African Research and Education Network), with support from Wellcome, are launching a three-year project that will strengthen the quality and sustainability of diamond open access (OA) publishing services across Africa while maintaining their diversity.
The ‘Collaboration for sustainable open access publishing in Africa’ project is timely. Diamond OA, a scholarly publication model in which journals and platforms do not charge fees to either authors or readers, is on the rise in Africa. It is being discussed by institutional and national open science policy makers seeking to align their policies with the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science.
The project will identify challenges for diamond OA publishing in Africa through community consultation and a landscape study, and issue two open calls for proposals for funding to strengthen the quality of diamond OA publishing services across the region. The first call for proposals will be issued in 2024. The funding process will be participatory, with input and advice from the African diamond OA community.
The project will also seek to strengthen national and regional collaboration on diamond OA and secure sustainable funding commitments from African governments and institutions by embedding diamond OA support in open science policies.
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