5 November 2025
The Diamond Open Access Policy Forum launched on 29 October 2025, with over 370 participants worldwide attending. SPARC Europe leads this Forum as part of the ALMASI project.
The Forum convenes international, national, and local policymakers and funders in three regions: Africa, Europe and Latin America to discuss nonprofit scholarly publishing policy and funding needs, progress, and challenges. The aim is to support more equitable, diverse, and community-led scholarly publishing internationally.
The Forum brings policymakers and funders together to develop contextually-relevant, realistic and replicable policy recommendations and practicable funding mechanisms to implement policies in support of Diamond OA research publication within and across the regions. We aim to share, discuss and develop policy recommendations and funding mechanisms that work in various contexts.
We need Diamond OA as
- Science has historically been publicly funded, so we are convinced that our research output is a public good and the Diamond OA model is key to deliver on this as we retain our autonomy and control over how and where we publish.
- By being free to readers and authors, Diamond OA clearly reduces the inequities to access to knowledge and knowledge production.
- Diamond OA allows authors and reviewers to actively contribute and engage in the regional and global research discourse impacting science and society in equal measure.
- Diamond OA supports cultural and language diversity by enabling publishing in languages other than English, helping preserve our linguistic and cultural heritage.
Speakers from Africa, Europe, and Latin America presented overviews of the Diamond OA nonprofit publishing landscape and policy and funding successes for Diamond OA in their regions. Speakers included Bianca Amaro (Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Brazil), Francisco Alarcón (Consejo Superior Universitario Centroamericano), Michelle Doran (National Open Research Forum, Ireland), Nicolas Fressengeas (Université de Lorraine), Birgit Schreiber (Southern African Regional Universities Association), Steven Sebbale (Uganda National Council for Science and Technology), Victoria Tsoukala (European Commission), and ALMASI partners Arianna Becerril García (Redalyc, AmeliCA, Autonomous University of the State of Mexico), Susan Murray (African Journals Online), and Johan Rooryck (OPERAS).
Three regional fora for Africa, Europe, and Latin America will launch in the next six months. The international Forum will continue to gather policymakers and funders from all three regions at two meetings every year.
We will soon share the recordings of the Forum’s launch event in English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish and an FAQ sheet summarising the questions and answers addressed during the discussion.
Find more information about the Forum here. If you would like to be invited to the next meetings of the Diamond OA Policy Forum, please email diamondoa [at] sparceurope.org.