Research on Diamond Open Access in the Long Shadow of Science Policy

TL;DR

This paper reviews literature on Diamond Open Access journals, analyzing their role, diversity, and the influence of science policy, highlighting gaps and implications for scholarly communication systems.

Contribution

It critically examines how science policy influences DOA research and discusses the landscape's diversity and the need for broader understanding beyond policy discourse.

Findings

Research on DOA journals is influenced by science policy discourse.

Most studies focus on quantitative aspects like number and diversity of DOA journals.

Policy-driven research leaves important aspects of DOA underexplored.

Abstract

This paper reviews research literature on Diamond Open Access (DOA) journals - sometimes also called Platinum Open Access - that was produced after this journal segment started to become a priority in European research policy around 2020. It contextualizes the current science policy debate, critically examines different understandings of DOA, and reviews studies on the role of such journals in scholarly communication. Most existing research consists of quantitative studies focusing on aspects such as the number of DOA journals, their publication output, the diversity of the landscape in terms of subject areas, languages, publishing entities, indexing in major databases, awareness and perception among scholars, cost analyses, as well as insights into the internal operations of DOA journals. The review shows that research on DOA journals is partly influenced by the science policy discourse in at least two ways: first, through the normativity inherent in that discourse, and second, through the temporality of policy-driven research of practical relevance, which leaves important aspects of the phenomenon understudied. Moreover, research on the DOA journal landscape has implications beyond understanding this particular journal segment, as it also challenges established views of the global system of scholarly communication.