Open Journals Collective receives over £500,000 to accelerate shift towards alternative scholarly publishing
A Gates Foundation grant of over £500,000 to an initiative for advancing diamond open access is a “vote of confidence” in alternative publishing models, its executive director has said.
The Open Journals Collective launched in January with the aim of raising collective investment for a transition to academic-led, non-profit diamond open access—the scholarly publishing model where research is free for both authors and readers, with journals operating outside traditional, for-profit publishers.
Based in the UK, the OJC has 50 library members across the UK, US and Europe, whose investments support 278 journals and the development of open publishing infrastructure.
Earlier this month, the OJC announced a two-year grant from the Gates Foundation worth $711,900 to “scale its operations in 2027 and 2028”.
Caroline Edwards, the OJC’s executive director and a professor at Birkbeck University of London, told Research Professional News the collective “met with them at an early stage and discussed how funding to accelerate what we’re doing would be helpful”.
Important symbolism
Edwards said the symbolism of Gates Foundation funding was an added benefit, on top of the money being helpful for the collective’s operations.
“I think the vote of confidence is super important, and we’ve already seen—because we’re still fundraising for this year—that libraries are very reassured the foundation has put its name behind us,” she added.
The OJC has already raised $2.6 million from its members in 2026.
The Gates Foundation requires all research that it funds to be immediately available as an open access preprint and does not pay for article processing charges. It has its own diamond open access platform, Gates Open Research.
Beyond proof-of-concept
“This funding helps ensure that our operational costs are not coming out of library fundraising that we’ve already got, and more of that money can instead go straight back to the journals,” Edwards said.
Despite momentum behind alternative publishing initiatives, most UK universities still pay for open access agreements with the major commercial publishing companies. But persistent financial pressure has led to increasing numbers of institutions dropping their agreements.
“In terms of higher education, particularly in the UK, we’re in this massive period of turbulence and uncertainty. We know the finances don’t add up,” Edwards said.
“I think this is a really good time to forge ahead and show people that this is an alternative that works. Right now, OJC is at a proof-of-concept stage; this is the year to show people it can work,” she added.