#OAWeek2024: Together for Diamond Open Access - How do funding consortia work?

Diamond Open Access through financing consortia: What is it all about?

Due to the rising costs caused by the transformation agreements, the TUB is increasingly committed to engage in alternative financing models in the area of open access publishing. This also includes participation in sustainable funding structures for renowned Diamond Open Access journals and book series within the framework of consortia (= funding communities).

Funding consortia bring together individual financing contributions from libraries and information infrastructure institutions in order to secure the operating costs of the editorial offices over fixed periods of time. They strengthen the free accessibility of research results without fees for authors and readers, and thus also the independence of research from commercial interests.[1] (See also: “Open-Access-Basics” > “Diamond Open Access”.) Participating journals and book series must meet minimum legal, technical, financial and editorial standards in addition to their professional significance, which are set out in specific criteria.[2]

The initiation, conclusion of contracts and handling of these funding consortia are carried out by consortium offices at larger information infrastructure institutions. As these institutions carry out central tasks for certain disciplines, the consortia based at them are usually specialized in areas that correspond to the funding institution’s mandate. Examples are

Consortium	Processing institution	Scientific field	Media type
Establishing consortial open access solutions (KOALA)	TIB Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology	Computer Science, Mathematics, Quantum Physics	Journals
Open Library of Economics (OLEcon)	ZBW Leibniz Information Centre for Economics	Economics	Journals
Establishing consortial open access solutions (KOALA)	SLUB Dresden	History, environmental sciences, social and cultural anthropology	Journals
edu_consort_oa	DIPF Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education	Educational research	Journals, E-Books

Due to the support of TUHH research, the TUB has decided to support the journal “Quantum” in the KOALA model this year.

How do Diamond Open Access consortium offices work?

Consortium offices set up and manage financing consortia as independent services, either as pilot projects or regular services. When taking on the corresponding tasks, the respective institutions can often build on several years of routine in the “classic” consortium business, i.e. as negotiators for library consortia in the subscription sector (=closed access).[3] The organization of Diamond Open Access consortia includes the following activities:

Initiation:

Identification of renowned journals and/or book series, if necessary on the basis of an evaluation by the in-house scientific service
Conducting exploratory talks with potential editors, editorial offices or publishers
- following an acquisition attempt or
- following a financing request from the publication service provider
Checking the minimum standards
Determination of financing requirements and projection of operating costs
Submission of a participation offer

Bundling:

Compilation of journals and/or book series into subject-specific bundles
Preparation of product information sheets with price scaling

Conclusion of contract:

Mutual signing of cooperation agreements between the publication service providers and the consortium office

Participation survey:

Implementation of a participation survey for funding contributions (“pledging”) to all academic libraries and information infrastructure facilities for a fixed term, supported by advertising measures
At the end of the term, determination of whether the financing targets have been achieved and whether corresponding consortia have been formed

Financing year(s):

Ensuring that the participation contracts are signed by the participating libraries
Obtaining and checking invoices from the publication service providers at the beginning of a financing year
Obtaining and checking detailed where-used lists from the publication service providers at the beginning of the following year

During the initiation of a consortium, offices face the challenge of assembling an attractive package. On the one hand, this means attracting one or more renowned journals (possibly with high performance in terms of measurable key figures) to participate in the funding survey; on the other hand, the targeted funding volume must not lead to a price structure that makes participation unattractive for the libraries and information institutions being courted. Typically, the required contributions depend on the institution’s size and the number of participating institutions.

Strengths and weaknesses of Diamond Open Access consortia

Diamond Open Access consortia offer a science-friendly approach and the major advantage of full cost transparency. Their funding targets focus solely on operating or production costs, not on profits. In addition, the financing target for the agreed periods (e.g. KOALA: 3 years, OLEcon: 1 year) means relative planning security for both the “receiving” publication service providers and the “giving” libraries. Furthermore, extensions through the establishment of new consortia are expressly intended.

However, operating costs might be high for journals with many publications, especially in times of inflation-related cost increases. In these cases, the funding target is often not achieved, meaning that the consortium fails. Consequently, the journals in the bundle must rely on other funding sources, such as author fees. Another issue with such funding consortia is their low attractiveness to successful for-profit Gold Open Access journals, which often find them unappealing. These journals typically generate far more income from author fees than their actual operating costs.

Even if such consortium offers are currently the exception rather than the rule, there is great confidence in the library landscape that the Diamond Open Access financing consortium model will continue to establish itself.[4] This is also supported by the fact that the general science policy framework conditions for the continued and subsequent use and further development of such models have improved.[5]

[1] Consortium-financed Diamond Open Access is fundamentally close to the scholar-led concept, but is not limited exclusively to non-commercial publication venues. The contractual partners of these consortia include not only editors and publishers from specialist societies and university institutes, but also small and medium-sized publishers.

[2] See the example of the KOALA minimum standards at: https://www.tib.eu/de/services/koala/mindeststandards

[3] Cf. Hillenkötter, Christine: An der Schwelle zur Transformation: „Alte“ und „neue“ Lizenzmodelle im Überblick. In: Preprints der Zeitschrift BIBLIOTHEK – Forschung und Praxis, 2018, AR 3193, S. 9f. Online: https://edoc.hu-berlin.de/bitstreams/d6317545-bd5e-4b9a-bb3b-3e33e029e9c1/download

[4] See Schenke, Julian, Stork, Karin, Tullney, Marco (2024): KOALA – ein Diamond-Open-Access-Modell als Angebot und Chance für die bibliothekarische Erwerbung. 112. BiblioCon Hamburg, 07.06.2024. DOI: https://doi.org/10.34657/13736

[5] This is evidenced, among other things, by the EU Council Presidency’s call for member states to take decisive measures to enforce open science – which explicitly includes the promotion of fee-free open access publication infrastructures. Cf. Magee, Rachel: EU ready to back immediate open access without author fees, May 5, 2023. ResearchProfessional News: https://www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-europe-infrastructure-2023-5-eu-ready-to-back-immediate-open-access-without-author-fees/

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