On September 26th 2024, over 60 key stakeholders from the European Open Access community were invited to take a first look at the European Diamond Capacity Hub. This online event, dubbed the ‘soft launch’, spanned more than four hours and offered an overview of future developments for Diamond OA in Europe.
The European Diamond Capacity Hub (EDCH) aims to coordinate and align the activities of Diamond OA in Europe. When officially launched next year, the audience discussed how it will support Diamond publishers by facilitating information exchange, the sharing of resources, and the possibility to streamline operations. In addition, the hub will contain tools and services for publishers, as well as standards and support for the sustainability of publishing operations.
In this function, the EDCH will promote and support Diamond OA, promising to build on the momentum and interest that has recently developed on equitable and community-led publishing models. When operational, the EDCH will pool and strengthen the existing Diamond OA community, while also supporting the expansion and growth of the publishing model.
Operating across the European Research Area, the EDCH will act as an umbrella for community nodes known as Diamond Capacity Centres. These centres will operate on a national, institutional, and/or regional level. Throughout this entire structure there will be three different types of membership within the EDCH: supporting, operational, and community. At present, the governance structure for the Hub is sketched out and as the official launch approaches the roles will begin to be more clearly defined as regional centres are established and members for the roles are finalised
During the ‘soft launch’, the invited audience was engaged throughout to provide thoughts and feedback on the proposals. In this regard, the event acted as part of stakeholder consultation to capitalise on the expert knowledge present. Although plans are well underway, the ambitious and sweeping goals of the EDCH mean that many aspects are still yet to be finalised and community consensus around its functions and operations is essential to achieve the overall goals.
DIAMAS and CRAFT-OA are key parts of the building blocks for the EDCH and their role in kickstarting operations was stressed throughout the event. The DIAMAS project has already established DOAS and its two self-assessment tools which will be core resources housed in the EDCH. In the coming months, DIAMAS will produce training materials and recommendations which will also be incorporated into the completed Capacity Hub.
Piere Mounier and Johan Rooryck – DIAMAS co-coordinators – are at the forefront of these plans. Speaking after the event, they made this statement:
“We are very pleased to see that the European Diamond Capacity Hub will adopt and bring forward the outcomes of the DIAMAS and CRAFT-OA projects, following up on the recommendation of the Open Access Diamond Journals Study and in line with the Action Plan for Diamond Open Access. We believe the EDCH will play a crucial role in federating the Diamond OA landscape in Europe, and that it will thus contribute to a high-quality, fair, open, trustworthy, and equitable scholarly communication ecosystem.”
The official launch of the EDCH is planned for January 2025 – more details to follow.
