Since 2025, the Irish Research eLibrary (IReL) has been promoting and coordinating member support for Diamond open access (OA) publishing, a model described as open access without barriers to participation. Under Diamond OA, content is made freely available for anyone to read or reuse, while authors anywhere are able to publish without publication charges or the need to qualify under OA publishing agreements.
IReL stated that it already funds support for OA without barriers through agreements such as its Annual Reviews Subscribe to Open agreement, and also supports infrastructure that enables open access publishing, including the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). Through its Diamond OA program, IReL supports member libraries in dedicating part of their collections budgets to OA publishing.
While funding is provided by member libraries, IReL centralises the support by managing promotion, contracts, and payments on behalf of participating institutions.
For 2026, IReL announced that additional libraries have agreed to join its Diamond OA program. The University of Limerick will support Central European University Press’s participation in the Opening the Future initiative for three years, covering the 2026–2028 period. IReL stated that the funding will support OA book publication while also allowing the University of Limerick access to selected Central European University Press closed content.
IReL also announced that the Institute of Art, Design + Technology, Trinity College Dublin, and University College Dublin have joined the Open Book Collective’s ScholarLed Package for one year in 2026. The ScholarLed Package was described as a consortium of six academic-led, non-profit, born open access book publishers.
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