What if the global backbone of Diamond OA cost less than a single country’s journal access and APC bill? https://scoss.org/the-6-vs-100-million-oa-question/
The 6 vs. 100 million OA question
25 May 2026 - What if the global backbone of Diamond OA cost less than a single country’s journal access and APC bill? For many, it does. Put it into perspective: the combined operating costs of the 12 SCOSS-endorsed Diamond OA infrastructures come to approximately €6 million annually. Not per country, not per institution. Total. Meanwhile, a single country can spend €100 million or more per year on journal access and APCs. The real choice is about shifting from a fee-for-service model (€100M for in-country access only) to an investment model (€6M in global access). The point is not that these costs are directly interchangeable. It is that the research community routinely spends far more on temporary access and transactional publishing fees than it would take to sustain shared infrastructure with long-term global benefit. **Two very different paths** Funding the transition to open access takes many forms. Transformative agreements, article processing charges, and journal access fees can cost a single country €100 million or more per year, often buying access for just that country, for just that year. By contrast, €6 million annually funds all 12 SCOSS-endorsed infrastructures* combined. An investment in these services doesn’t just open doors for one institution or one nation. It sustains the shared foundation that makes Diamond OA possible for everyone, everywhere. **The infrastructure behind Diamond OA** Diamond OA is free for both authors and readers, but it is not cost-free. It depends on community-governed infrastructure that provides the tools, platforms, and services relied on every day across the research lifecycle. SCOSS-endorsed infrastructures that directly support Diamond OA include: AJOL, AmeliCA, arXiv, DOAB, DOAJ, Episciences, LA Referencia, OAPEN, Open Policy Finder, PKP, Redalyc, and SciPost Together, they support journals, books, repositories, discovery systems, policy tools, and publishing platforms across every continent. These are not peripheral services. They are part of the operational backbone that allows Diamond OA to function at scale. **A collective investment in the commons** Sustaining these infrastructures doesn’t require any single organisation to shoulder the burden alone. By pooling resources, libraries, research funders, and consortia can collectively ensure that this essential infrastructure remains stable and well-supported. A durable, coordinated commitment of roughly €6 million per year would not only keep these services running, it would free them from the cycle of perpetual fundraising, giving them the stability to grow and improve. Diamond OA works because it’s built on shared, community-owned infrastructure. Keeping that infrastructure healthy is one of the smartest and most cost-effective investments the research community can make. **How you can help** Whether your institution has pledged before or is considering it for the first time, sustained, ongoing support is what keeps these infrastructures running. Every contribution counts. ✅ Explore the full list of SCOSS-endorsed infrastructures ✅ Identify the services that align with your strategic priorities ✅ Make a pledge or renew your support today *Operational budget figures are drawn from the data provided at the time each infrastructure submitted an application to SCOSS.
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