Academy of Finland signs Action Plan for Diamond Open Access

The Academy of Finland has signed an international action plan that aims to further develop and expand the diamond open access scholarly publication model. The Action Plan for Diamond Open Access (DOA) is an international plan for community-driven open-access publishing that supports research papers free for both authors and readers.

Published in early March 2022, the plan is supported by networks such as Science Europe and cOAlition S, which are committed to promoting cooperation between research funders. The signatories include a large number of universities, research libraries, research funders and academies of sciences as well as international academic organisations and networks from Europe, North and South America, Africa and Asia. In Finland, the action plan has already been signed by the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies.

DOA journals account for 8–9 per cent of the total scientific publication volume worldwide. The publication method is characterised by significant fragmentation and variation as regards the practices of DOA journals. In the Finnish scientific community and among its publishing actors, DOA is very common. This emphasises the importance of taking the action plan into account, especially in supporting Finnish scientific publishing.

The aim of the plan is to create a global community and infrastructure that support the development and continuity of diamond open access. The plan focuses on four central elements for its further development: efficiency, quality standards, capacity building and sustainability.

Supporting the plan is part of the implementation of the Academy’s strategy to promote open science and the Academy’s activities to implement Finland’s national Declaration for Open Science and Research 2020–2025. In this way, the Academy reaffirms its commitment to supporting open science in collaboration with Science Europe and cOAlition S.

Organisations and members of the scientific community can learn more about the action plan on the Science Europe website. On the website, the responsible organisations also welcome further endorsements of the plan.