Open access has become a defining feature of contemporary scholarly publishing. What began as a principled call to remove barriers to knowledge is now embedded in funder mandates, institutional strategies and global research policy. Yet as open access has scaled, so too have its tensions. For many researchers and institutions, questions of equity, sustainability and affordability remain unresolved – particularly where the costs of openness are borne by authors rather than readers.

It is in this context that diamond open access has moved decisively into focus. Diamond OA – free to read, free to publish and community owned – offers a model that aligns openness with academic values, without relying on author-facing charges. While often discussed as an emerging alternative, diamond OA is not new. For a significant number of journals and presses all around the world, it has long been a functioning, mission-led approach to publishing, grounded in institutional support, shared infrastructure and collective stewardship.

For UCL Press journals, diamond open access is foundational. As the world’s first fully open access university press, UCL Press was established on the principle that scholarly and research outputs should be openly available, without financial barriers to participation. Since launching in 2015, the Press has demonstrated that a diamond model can operate at scale across journals, serve diverse academic communities and deliver global reach and impact – all while remaining aligned with the mission of the university.

This blog series, Reimagining access: the future of Diamond open access publishing, draws on that experience at a moment of renewed momentum for the model. International initiatives, funder interest and coordinated action plans are converging to address long-standing questions around sustainability and infrastructure. At the same time, dissatisfaction with Article Publication Charges (APC) -based models is sharpening the sector’s focus on alternatives that better support equity, bibliodiversity and long-term resilience. After all, by increasing equity to access research outputs, we also increase mutual knowledge and engagement which can better develop co-design and co-production approaches to new research and ways of finding innovative solutions to complex societal problems.

Across four posts, the series explores diamond OA from complementary perspectives. We begin by examining why diamond OA is a viable option, and why now – situating the model within today’s policy, funding and cultural landscape and considering why it is increasingly seen as a credible future for open scholarship. From there, we turn to the economics of diamond OA, challenging persistent assumptions about sustainability and examining the collective funding and infrastructure models that enable the approach to endure and scale.

The series then moves beyond economics to consider diamond OA as a cultural and ethical shift in scholarly publishing – one that prioritises community ownership, non-profit values and support for diverse forms of knowledge. Finally, we look ahead to what a more coordinated, global diamond ecosystem could look like, and the role of collaboration, shared governance and collective investment in making that future a reality.

This is a series informed by practice rather than abstraction. UCL Press’s experience as a long-standing diamond OA publisher provides a practical lens on what works, what requires sustained commitment and where collective action is most needed. As diamond open access gains greater visibility and strategic importance, institutions with established experience of the model have a responsibility to contribute actively to shaping its future.

In the first post, we begin by setting out why diamond open access is emerging now as a compelling and credible direction for scholarly publishing – and why it matters for the long-term health of the research ecosystem.

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