The Open Journals Collective (OJC) is proud to announce the launch of its official investment campaign, inviting libraries to secure a sustainable, community-led future for scholarly publishing. The California Digital Library is thrilled to be a founding OJC publishing parter, with 14 eScholarship Publishing journals included in the 2026 collection.
Designed as a scalable and viable alternative to commercial “big deals” and so-called “transformative agreements,” OJC offers libraries a streamlined pathway to support a diverse ecosystem of diamond open-access journals without the administrative overhead of managing hundreds of individual agreements.
Diamond Open Access refers to a scholarly publication model in which journals and platforms do not charge authors or readers. Diamond Open Access journals are community-driven, academic-led, and academic-owned publishing initiatives.
As university libraries face increasing pressure to divest from the “Big Five” commercial publishers, who currently consume up to 60% of many library budgets, OJC provides a mission-driven infrastructure that returns control to the academic community. By joining the Collective, libraries can invest in three launch collections encompassing 284 DOAJ-indexed diamond open-access journals across the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (AHSS), and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).
The OJC model is specifically engineered to protect bibliodiversity by supporting journals that are free to read and free to publish. Instead of navigating the overhead of managing lots of small agreements, libraries can participate through a single, banded (tiered) membership model.
In the United States: The Center for Research Libraries (CRL) and its NERL licensing program serve as the primary billing agent, allowing members to participate with no additional consortial fees.
In the United Kingdom: Libraries can easily sign up via Jisc’s Licence Subscriptions Manager, ensuring the investment process is integrated into existing library workflows.
In the rest of the world: Libraries are invited to contact OJC directly by email, memberships@openjournalscollective.org. OJC is able to conveniently invoice in multiple currencies.
“Working together, libraries can build a sustainable, more equitable future for academic journals publishing that transitions away from unaffordable commercial models,” said Professor Caroline Edwards, one of the Directors of OJC. “Our model enables high-quality journals to ‘flip’ away from subscription structures into a fully diamond environment, reducing financial barriers while strengthening long-term resilience.”
Unlike commercial entities, OJC is governed by its members. Library investment is distributed through a transparent funding committee composed of library members, ensuring that all funds are reinvested directly into the research communities that make these journals possible. The OJC Library Hub will further empower librarians with usage data and evaluation-based reports to justify investment decisions.
About the Open Journals Collective (OJC)
Launching fully in January 2026, the Open Journals Collective is an international movement of scholars, libraries, and university-based publishers. Its mission is to challenge profit-driven publishing models by providing a community-governed infrastructure for diamond open access research that is free for both authors and readers. OJC is a non-profit Community Interest Company (16431892) registered in the UK.
Media Contact
Please contact the OJC Directors by email at memberships@openjournalscollective.org
OJC Directors
Professor Caroline Edwards (Open Library of Humanities / Birkbeck, University of London)
Joanna Ball (Directory of Open Access Journals)
Dr Rupert Gatti (Open Book Publishers / Trinity College, Cambridge)
Website
Tags: eScholarship, Open Access
