Stellenbosch University is at the forefront of advancing open scholarship through its commitment to Diamond Open Access. This model eliminates financial barriers for both authors and readers and transforming the way knowledge is shared and accessed. From hosting open-access journals on the SUNJournals platform to plans for a dedicated monographs platform, Stellenbosch is ensuring that research outputs are freely accessible to all.

The University of Cape Town hosted a very informative conference on the 9-13 of December 2024. This conference afforded Open Science advocates the opportunity to interact and discuss issues around diamond open access and initiatives that exist to promote diamond open access. Diamond’s open-access existence revolves around ensuring that research output remains a public good, which must be produced and accessible without any form of restrictions. Making research outputs/knowledge freely accessible through open-access publishing contributes immensely to social justice by ensuring equitable access. Open science advocates from all parts of the world got a chance to interact and discuss the best practices to promote open access. Academic libraries have a critical role in ensuring equitable access to knowledge, and diamond open access aims to remove financial barriers and encourage equitable access to both the author and the reader. Access to knowledge remains a critical aspect in societies and academic institutions are at the forefront of ensuring that knowledge produced matches knowledge consumption. Diamond’s open access aims to eradicate APCs as a financial barrier to knowledge production. Novice and well-established authors have had to pay article processing charges to publish articles, and diamond open access emanates a great opportunity to publish without any barriers.

Article processing charges (APCs) are mostly in Euros and authors from the global south find it expensive to publish, and that harms knowledge production. Africa is rich in knowledge; through diamond open access, authors can publish on indigenous knowledge and issues that are related to our societal issues. Diamond open access is often associated with predatory publishing; however, it is a model where publications are freely available to readers at no cost and authors do not have to pay APCs for publishing. To ensure the quality of the outputs, transparency, and reliability, diamond open access platforms peer-review their research outputs. To promote diamond open access, institutions have introduced platforms to host journals and monographs to ensure that researchers can publish without paying APCs. Diamond open access also plays a vital role in the decolonization of the publishing model; it ensures that perspectives from marginalized societies have a platform and are not excluded. It offers publishing in a variety of languages, which allows wider accessibility and sharing of knowledge in its original form. Diamond open access is not here to replace traditional publishing models but to provide an alternative for publishing scholarly outputs to authors who cannot afford APCs and to promote equity and justice where authors from diverse communities have equal opportunities to publish.

Establishing Diamond Open Access Platforms at Stellenbosch University:

Open Journal system (SUNJournals)

It is a publishing platform built on open-source software for managing and publishing scholarly journals. Sun Journals hosts 27 journals on different subjects to allow authors from different disciplines to publish for free and provide free access to the readers. Authors are encouraged to make use of the SUN journals platform, targeting first-year students, researchers, postgraduates, and academic staff interested in publishing. The good thing about OJS is that it can be integrated with green open-access platforms, e.g., SunScholar, to enhance the dissemination of research. The platform is free to both the reader and the author but that doesn’t exclude the peer review process to ensure that outputs are of a high quality and reliable.

Monographs platform

A few institutions in South Africa have already established their monograph platforms to enable authors to publish a variety of books in a variety of languages. This platform offers authors a great opportunity to publish more about indigenous knowledge that is freely accessible to the readers and has no cost of publication for the author. This platform promotes wider dissemination of knowledge, equitable access, and free access for all without restrictions. The Stellenbosch Library plans to establish its own monographs platform as part of diamond open access to ensure that we have a community-driven publishing platform that eliminates all barriers involved in publishing. The monograph platform will promote improved research impact and equitable access compared to traditional publishing models and make scholarly research freely accessible to a wider audience.

Conclusion
Diamond Open Access represents a transformative shift in academic publishing, promoting equity, decolonization, and unrestricted access to knowledge. Stellenbosch University’s initiatives, such as SUNJournals and plans for a monograph’s platform, exemplify its commitment to advancing open scholarship. By eliminating financial barriers and fostering inclusive publishing, Diamond Open Access ensures that diverse voices are heard, and knowledge is shared freely. Let’s continue to support and expand these efforts, creating a more just and accessible future for scholarly communication.

Authors: Sakhile Mngomezulu, Xabiso Xesi