Published on: 22/12/2025
Reclaiming Knowledge: Why Diamond Open Access matters
On 11 December 2025, the ALMASI project launched its Discussion Series on Scholar-led Publishing with a webinar co-hosted by the Global Young Academy. The event, titled “Reclaiming Knowledge: Why Diamond Open Access Matters,” brought together researchers from Africa, Europe, and Latin America to examine Diamond OA from multiple perspectives.
Speakers presented insights on the structural, legal, and systemic dimensions of Diamond Open Access publishing. We welcomed:
- Dr. Philip Mwachaka (Editor-in-Chief, East African Journal of Neurological Sciences, Kenya)
- Ginevra Peruginelli (Institute of Legal Informatics and Judicial Systems, CNR, Italy)
- Dr. Luciana Balboa (University of Buenos Aires/CONICET, Argentina; Global Young Academy; COARA Board Member)
The webinar was moderated by Fotis Mystakopoulos (OPERAS), with discussion support from Marietta Papadatou-Pastou (Global Young Academy).
Dr. Mwachaka opened the session by highlighting the structural inequities embedded in the current global scholarly publishing system. He explained how Diamond OA removes financial barriers that disadvantage researchers in resource-limited regions, noting that this model empowers early career researchers who often lack access to funding for article processing charges. Diamond OA, he argued, enhances the visibility of African science globally and supports equity and scientific justice.
Building on this foundation, Ginevra Peruginelli examined why these inequities persist by addressing the legal architecture of scholarly communication. She identified two paradoxes at the heart of the current system: publicly funded research becoming private property through copyright transfer, and community-built journals being transferred to commercial ownership. To address these challenges, she outlined three essential pillars for reform, rights, responsibilities, and governance, and introduced the Diamond Open Access Standard (DOAS) developed in the DIAMAS project, which provides a comprehensive framework for ensuring that Diamond journals remain community-controlled public goods.
Yet even with the right legal frameworks in place, researchers face another obstacle: how their work is evaluated. Dr. Balboa presented findings from a landmark global study on research assessment policies, covering over 500 institutions across 121 countries. The research revealed that quantitative metrics dominate evaluation systems worldwide, creating a disconnect between how science is envisioned as a public good and how research is actually assessed. This pressure, she demonstrated, works against Diamond OA adoption and reinforces reliance on commercial journals. Dr. Balboa called for aligning assessment practices with the values of social impact, local relevance, and democratic access to knowledge, and invited participants to join COARA, the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment.
These themes resonated strongly in the interactive discussion that followed, where participants shared their own experiences navigating these tensions. Key concerns included the challenge of identifying the right venue for publication and the persistent influence of institutional evaluation pressures. At the same time, participants strongly valued open and transparent practices, rigorous peer review, and reproducibility requirements as markers of journal quality, qualities that Diamond journals are well-positioned to deliver. The central message was clear: while researchers personally support Diamond OA, meaningful reform of research assessment is essential for it to flourish.
The Discussion Series on Scholar-led Publishing will continue with future webinars exploring different aspects of community-driven publishing. A recording of the webinar is available on YouTube and the speaker presentations are available on Zenodo.
