University Of Göttingen Leads Project On Publishing And Reading Free From Fees
In Diamond Open Access, there are no fees for publishing or accessing scientific publications, whether you are reading or publishing. The University of Göttingen will lead an EU project with 23 partners in 14 European countries from January 2023. The aim is to strengthen and develop institutional publishing using the Diamond Open Access model across Europe. The European Commission has funded the project “Creating a Robust Accessible Federated Technology for Open Access (CRAFT-OA)” for three years, awarding a total of 4.8 million euros.
By offering specific services and tools for the entire journal-publishing pathway, the project enables local and regional platforms and service providers in this sector to expand and professionalise their content, services and platforms. This will enable stronger networking of their services with other information systems in science. This will make the work of scientists and scholars who are involved in the institutional Diamond OA journals easier.
The project focuses on four core areas: the technical improvement of journal platforms and software; the building of active communities; better visibility, discoverability and recognition for Diamond OA publications; and their integration into the European Open Science Cloud, the European cloud service for science, and other big data aggregators. CRAFT-OA offers technical tools, training events and materials, information and services. The project aims to foster communities of practice to ensure the results of the project endure beyond the end of the project.
“There are countless dedicated Open Access journals that are working hard to enable their communities and disciplines to publish in Diamond Open Access,” explains project leader Margo Bargheer from the Göttingen State and University Library (SUB). “Our project gives them the opportunity to benefit from each other’s developments and services, but most importantly to benefit from shared expertise and strong networks in the field of professional institutional publishing to achieve greater consistency in how journals operate.”
CRAFT-OA is linked to other European projects to further develop Diamond Open Access: while CRAFT-OA focuses mainly on technological development and improvement, the DIAMAS project promotes Diamond Open Access on a non-technical level, including through the establishment of a capacity centre and networking of stakeholders. The PALOMERA project also investigates institutional scholarly communication, but in contrast to journals, it focuses on books and in particular on policies for books.