Diamond OA policies
Abstract
These guidelines facilitate the implementation of Diamond OA policies in academic publishing, emphasizing the importance of accessibility, quality, and transparency in disseminating scientific content.
Diamond OA can be structured around a series of policies that enable efficient management of accessibility, quality, and transparency in knowledge dissemination. Diamond OA policies comprise elements such as free access, open licenses, and peer review; appropriate open science practices; and clear technical management elements that ensure greater impact and enhanced visibility, using sustainable and efficient publishing models. Aligning editorial policies with these standards helps to improve research trustworthiness.
Main Text
Diamond OA policies in scholarly publishing encompass a wide spectrum of technical, and operational aspects that ensure compliance with the principles of Open Science and increase the trustworthiness of published research. The elements of a comprehensive OA policy can be summarized as follows:
Access and Interoperability
Ensuring equitable access to scientific content requires all publications to be freely available and interoperable.
The development of a publishing infrastructure allows for streamlining editorial processes and ensuring efficient knowledge distribution. To achieve this, it is suggested that Diamond OA publishers:
- Adopt interoperability and quality standards
- Use common metadata formats
- Apply metadata exchange protocols to ensure the semantic interoperability of scientific content
- Use open-source technologies, with available open-source code
Quality in Peer Review Processes
Rigorous and transparent peer review is essential for academic excellence. Key aspects include:
- Publication and dissemination of the standards applied in content selection and a clear description of evaluation processes
- Transparency in the criteria for evaluating and selecting reviewers
Open Science Policies
Diamond OA publisher policies should align with Open Science and promote transparency, open access, and collaboration in research:
- Diamond OA publishers do not allow journals that ask authors for article processing charges (APCs).
- Authors retain copyright by publishing under licenses such as Creative Commons (CC-BY).
- Print-on-demand versions can be made available.
- Support is provided for unrestricted access to information, promoting rights retention and content reuse.
- Effective academic communication practices support indexing and deposit of works, boosting the visibility of papers.
Transparency and Equity in Editorial Practices
The editorial policies of Diamond OA journals need to be clear and accessible to ensure the quality and credibility of research, aligning with international ethical standards:
- Transparency of editorial policies reinforces the integrity and quality of published research, increasing societal trust.
- The functions and responsibilities of the people who are involved in the editorial process – authors, editors, and reviewers – should be clearly described on the journal website.
- The evaluation criteria for selected articles refer to transparent and ethical standards, and include plagiarism detection protocols and techniques.
- Editorial policies should contribute to reducing inequalities in knowledge access: language, race, gender...
- Editorial policies should take into account criteria of equality, diversity, inclusion and belonging (EDIB), using gender-balanced, inclusive, and diverse editorial and review teams.
Tips:
- Make sure to adopt an international standard for interoperability and quality to ensure open and equitable access to content. Adopt systems that are based on open-source software for efficient knowledge distribution.
- Establish a review process that is both rigorous and transparent. Publish and share the evaluation criteria and processes used to select articles.
- Align your editorial policies with Open Science principles, promoting transparency, free access, and collaboration in research. Avoid charging for article processing and adopt publication under Creative Commons licenses. Also, make print versions available on demand.
- Ensure transparency and fairness in editorial practices. Disclose the roles and responsibilities of the people involved in the editorial process, and ensure that evaluation criteria are transparent and ethical, including protocols for plagiarism detection. Implement policies that reduce inequalities in access to knowledge, including criteria of equality, diversity, inclusion and belonging (EDIB) in the composition of editorial and review teams.
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- Copyright, authors’ rights policy
- Self- archiving policy
- Use of open licences in Open Access publishing
- Research data sharing policy
- Availability of research protocols, methods and software
Related training materials
Further reading
- Ancion, Z., Borrell-Damián, l., Mounier, P., Rooryck, J., Saenen, B. (2022). Action Plan for Diamond Open Access. https://zenodo.org/records/6282403
- Angelaki, M., Avanço, K., Clivaz, C., Giglia, E., Gingold, A., Kamatsos, P., Lebon, C., Mounier, P., Pianzola, F., Polydoratou, P., Rosinsky, C., Schirrwagen, J., Ševkušić, M., Stanić, N., & Stranac, K. (2021). OPERAS White Paper: common standards and FAIR principles. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5653414
- Coslado, M. Ángeles, De Filippo, D., Ros, G., & Sanz-Casado, E. (2023). ‘Análisis de buenas prácticas editoriales en igualdad de género en España’. Revista Española De Documentación Científica, 46(1), e348. https://doi.org/10.3989/redc.2023.1.1952
- Labastida i Juan, I., Melinščak Zlodi, I., Proudman, V., & Treadway, J. (2023). Opening knowledge: retaining rights and open licensing in Europe. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8084051
- Nosek, B. A. et al. (2014). Guidelines for Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) in journal policies and practices “The TOP Guidelines” Version 1.0.1. Center for Open Science. https://osf.io/9f6gx/
Licensing
This article is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License