For scholarly journals and books, contributions are selected through an explicitly described peer-review process that takes place before and/or after publication and complies with recognized practices in the respective academic discipline to ensure quality in both content and form. The journal or publishing service makes information about the respective peer-review process publicly available on its website. Publication serves the purpose of scholarly communication, in particular the exchange of research findings and methods.
The publication of a scholarly article must not incur any costs for authors or readers (e.g., Article Processing Charges (APCs), submission fees, etc.). The journal or publishing service should publicly state on its website that it does not charge author-facing fees. Paid additional services or voluntary donations are permitted but must not be a condition for publication of appropriate scientific quality.
Articles are published under an open license that ensures comprehensive reuse. Open Access-compliant licenses as defined by the Berlin Declaration are the Creative Commons licenses CC 0, CC BY, and CC BY-SA.
The rights to the title of a journal, book, book series, or other periodical publication must be owned by the scholarly community. Information regarding ownership status should be publicly accessible.
A scholarly community consists of individuals, partnerships, and/or legal entities whose purpose is to conduct research or to promote science and research. [An institutional affiliation is not required for this.]
The publication of a scholarly journal, book, book series, or other periodically published medium under Diamond Open Access serves exclusively the purpose of scholarly communication and is not for commercial purposes. That is to say, the publication is expressly not (1) intended to generate profit for the copyright holders and not (2) intended to finance activities of the academic community unrelated to publication using proceeds from publishing (such as the cross-subsidization of conferences by professional societies, the awarding of scholarships, or the operation of association activities).
- Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Universitätsverlage. (2022). Qualitätsstandards für Open-Access-Bücher (Version 2). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7075761
- Armengou, C., Bargheer, M., Gingold, A., Holsinger, S., Laakso, M., Mitchell, D., Mounier, P., Pölönen, J., Rooryck, J., Ševkušić, M., Souyioultzoglou, I., & Varachkina, H. (2024). Operational Diamond OA Criteria for Journals. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12721408
- Consortium of the DIAMAS Project. (2025). Diamond Open Access Standard (DOAS). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15128179
- Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (2025). Titelschutz, https://www.boersenverein.de/beratung-service/recht/titelschutz/ (accessed on 11 June 2026).
- Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (2023). Merkblatt zu Titelschutzfragen, https://www.boersenverein.de/fileadmin/bundesverband/dokumente/beratung_service/politik_recht/titelschutz/Merkblatt_Titelschutz.pdf (accessed on 11 June 2026).
- Kreutzer, Till, Fischer Georg (iRights.Law), BMBF (2023). Urheberrecht in der Wissenschaft. Ein Überblick für Forschung, Lehre und Bibliotheken. Herausgegeben vom BMBF, https://www.bmftr.bund.de/SharedDocs/Publikationen/DE/1/31518_Urheberrecht_in_der_Wissenschaft.pdf (accessed on 11 June 2026).
- Max Planck Society (2003). Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities. https://openaccess.mpg.de/Berlin-Declaration (accessed on 11 June 2026).
- Rico-Castro, P., Rooryck, J., Melinščak Zlodi, I., Stojanovski, J., Ševkušić, M., & Armengou, C. (2024). D3.2 Extensible Quality Standard in Institutional Publishing (EQSIP) V2.0 for Diamond Open Access (1.0). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10726732