Paris, France · 14 November 2025 — UNESCO has released the findings of its Global Consultation on a Diamond Open Access Framework, a multilingual survey conducted between September 2024 and January 2025 that received nearly 2,900 responses from across 90 countries. The report, published as UNESCO document CI-2025/WS/1, aims to understand current practices, structural challenges, and future aspirations regarding community-led, non-commercial scholarly publishing — and the picture it paints is one of widespread aspiration constrained by systemic inequity.
The consultation forms part of UNESCO's broader effort to advance the implementation of its 2021 Recommendation on Open Science, which defines open science as an inclusive construct encompassing open publications, open data, open-source software, and open hardware. Diamond Open Access — a publishing model in which research is freely available to both authors and readers, with no subscription fees or article processing charges (APCs) — has emerged as a central pillar of this vision.
A Multilingual, Community-Driven Process
The consultation was launched in September 2024, engaging researchers, policymakers, publishers, and funders through an open, multilingual, and voluntary survey process. It built upon the outcomes of the Second Global Summit on Diamond Open Access, held at the University of Cape Town from 11 to 13 December 2024, where UNESCO served on the Oversight Committee and contributed through the consultation process.
The survey was designed to amplify voices from underrepresented regions, ensuring that diverse perspectives were integrated into global scientific frameworks. While the responses are not statistically representative, they reflect the real-world experiences and values of a broad spectrum of stakeholders across the scholarly communication ecosystem.
Structural Barriers to Equitable Publishing
The findings reveal that while there is strong global support for the Diamond Open Access model, significant structural barriers prevent its widespread adoption. These include:
- Financial sustainability: Diamond OA journals and platforms typically operate without revenue from either subscriptions or APCs, making them dependent on institutional subsidies, volunteer labour, or grant funding that is often precarious and short-term.
- Infrastructure gaps: Many regions, particularly in the Global South, lack the technical infrastructure — hosting platforms, preservation systems, and indexing services — needed to sustain Diamond OA publishing at scale.
- Research assessment systems: Outdated assessment frameworks that prioritise publication in high-impact, subscription-based journals continue to disincentivise Diamond OA publishing, particularly for early-career researchers concerned about career progression.
- Visibility and discoverability: Diamond OA journals often struggle to achieve the indexing and visibility of their commercially published counterparts, limiting the reach and citation impact of the research they publish.
UNESCO's Commitment to Bibliodiversity and North-South Collaboration
UNESCO has positioned Diamond Open Access as a vital mechanism for promoting bibliodiversity — the principle that scholarly publishing should reflect the linguistic, geographic, and disciplinary diversity of the global research community. The organisation emphasises that the Diamond model embodies the principles outlined in the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science, which calls for North-South, North-South-South, and South-South collaborations to optimise infrastructure use and develop joint strategies for shared, multinational, regional, and national open science platforms.
The recommendation specifically calls for the promotion of research collaborations, sharing of open science infrastructures, technical assistance, transfer and coproduction of technology related to open science, and exchange of good practices under mutually agreed terms.
From Consultation to Framework
The consultation results were first presented at an online event on 3 July 2025, where UNESCO outlined the initial findings and gathered further community input. The full report, published in November 2025, represents the culmination of this process and is expected to inform the development of a global framework for Diamond Open Access in the coming years.
UNESCO's work on Diamond OA is taking place against the backdrop of the first monitoring cycle of the 2021 Recommendation on Open Science, which saw 77 countries submit progress reports by mid-2025. The monitoring cycle highlighted both progress in open science adoption and ongoing challenges including data fragmentation and outdated research assessment systems — challenges that the Diamond OA consultation findings echo.
| Diamond OA Consultation at a Glance | |
|---|---|
| Survey period | September 2024 – January 2025 |
| Total responses | Nearly 2,900 |
| Countries represented | 90 |
| Languages | Multilingual |
| Summit venue | University of Cape Town, South Africa |
| Summit dates | 11–13 December 2024 |
| Results presented | 3 July 2025 (online) |
| Full report published | November 2025 (CI-2025/WS/1) |
The Road Ahead
UNESCO has stated that it remains committed to supporting the widespread adoption of Open Science policies, emphasising the collective call to dismantle systemic barriers, promote bibliodiversity, and foster stronger solidarity between the Global North and South. The organisation continues to empower professional communities worldwide through capacity-building initiatives that reflect the principles of inclusivity, equity, and sustainability.
For research institutions and policymakers, the consultation findings offer a clear mandate: the transition to equitable open science requires not only policy commitment but also sustained investment in the infrastructure, assessment reform, and collaborative frameworks that make Diamond OA a viable alternative to commercial publishing models. Without such investment, the aspiration for science as a global public good risks remaining just that — an aspiration.
Sources:
- UNESCO, Diamond Open Access: Advancing Knowledge as a Public Good —
- UNESCO, Consultation on a Global Diamond Open Access Framework (CI-2025/WS/1) —
- LaLIST/INIST-CNRS, Advancing equity and inclusion in scholarly communication: findings from the consultation on a Global Diamond Open Access Framework, 14 November 2025 —
- UNESCO, Step Towards Global Open Science Monitoring —
FIRAT Editorial Board
Institutional Research Desk · Foresight Institute of Research and Translation
The collective editorial and research translation board of FIRAT, synthesising peer-reviewed evidence, policy briefs, and division milestones across our seven foundational research pillars.
