Call for participation – Qualitative study of Diamond Open Access journals

Funding and Sustainability
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As part of the OPENIT research project, funded by the French National Research Agency, we are launching a qualitative study on the organisation and operation of Diamond Open Access journals.

The study is being conducted within Work Package 2 of the OPENIT project, which seeks to better understand the organisational and economic models underpinning open scholarly publishing. We have chosen to begin with the Diamond model, in which neither authors nor readers are charged publication or access fees.

We would like to interview people who are directly involved in managing and operating Diamond journals, including editors-in-chief, editorial board members, managing editors, publishing professionals, and representatives of publishing platforms.

The interviews will explore, among other topics:

  • journal organisation and governance;

  • human, technical and financial resources;

  • relationships with institutions, infrastructures and scholarly communities;

  • the main challenges encountered and the solutions developed;

  • the conditions required for the sustainability and further development of Diamond journals.

The analysis will draw on the SWOT framework (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) and the PESTEL framework, covering the political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal factors that shape Diamond publishing.

We plan to conduct approximately 50 interviews, seeking diversity in terms of disciplines, geographical regions, languages, journal sizes and institutional settings.

Interviews will last approximately one hour, will normally be conducted online and can be arranged according to participants’ availability and preferred language. The information collected will be treated confidentially and used exclusively for research purposes.

Those interested in participating, or in receiving further information, are invited to contact:

Abdelghani Maddi abdelghani.maddi@cnrs.fr / Isabelle Dorsch : isabelle.dorsch@cnrs.fr

We warmly thank all those who are willing to share their experience and contribute to a better understanding of the operation and long-term sustainability of Diamond Open Access publishing.