The Future is Diamond: Open Journals Collective

Presenter Information

• Galadriel Chilton, University of Massachusetts at LowellFollow
• Caroline Edwards, Birkbeck University of London
• Sophi Tranchell, Pluto Journals

Presentation Type

Presentation

Relevant Website

https://www.openjournalscollective.org/

Start Date

9-4-2026 2:20 PM

End Date

9-4-2026 2:50 PM

Description

The Open Journals Collective is a Collective Community Interest Company based in the UK that exists to benefit the community rather than private shareholders. Composed of journal publishers, editors, and librarians, the OJC community is dedicated to building a sustainable future for academic journals as a strong alternative to profit-making models of global corporate publishing and data systems. Officially launched in January 2026, this international organization is working to build a scalable pathway away from commercial publishers and subscription models to keep academic publishing within values-aligned organizations. But what is diamond open access, and why is it important for libraries to support it? How can we persuade our institutions to invest in content that appears to be free? Galadriel Chilton, Caroline Edwards, and Sophi Tranchell will share their strategies and rationales for supporting diamond open access, as well as their hands-on experience participating in this community governed collective.

But what is diamond open access, and why is it important for libraries to support it? How can we persuade our institutions to invest in content that appears to be free? An OJC representative TBD and Galadriel Chilton will share their strategies and rationales for supporting diamond open access, as well as their hands-on experience participating in this community governed collective.

Author Bios

Galadriel Chilton is dean of the Library at University of Massachusetts Lowell. Prior to joining UMass Lowell, she served as Director of Collections Initiatives for the Ivy Plus Libraries Confederation (IPLC), where she led collaborative collection programs and initiatives across thirteen premier research institutions. Currently, she serves on the library advisory board for the Open Journals Collective and is a peer reviewer for the Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication, an open access publication. She previously served on the advisory board for the Open Negotiation Education for Academic Libraries.

Caroline Edwards is Professor of Contemporary Literature & Culture based in Birkbeck's Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. She is also Executive Director of the Open Library of Humanities (OLH), an award-winning publisher of open access journals which is leading a transformative shift away from commercial academic publishing. Caroline has recently launched the Open Journals Collective, an international nonprofit publishing collective, which she directs with Joanna Ball and Dr Rupert Gatti.

Sophi Tranchell is the Marketing and Communications advisor at Pluto Journals. Her focus is to build awareness of Pluto Journals’ collection of Diamond Open Access, cutting edge, Social Science Journals and to support the journals to increase their usage and impact.  She has 30 years of experience of building independent brands, engaging and inspiring people and creating new markets. 

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.