Quality in Diamond Open Access Publishing: Guidelines, Policies, and Templates

This guidelines document is designed to support Diamond Open Access (OA) journal publishers in enhancing the quality and credibility of their journals and encouraging alignment with established best practices in scholarly publishing. It builds upon established frameworks, including the DOAJ’s Basic Criteria, the Best Practices Checklist for Diamond OA Publishers, and the Diamond Open Access Standard (DOAS) developed by the Developing Institutional Open Access Publishing Models To Advance Scholarly Communication (DIAMAS) project. It takes into account the specific challenges faced by Diamond OA journals in Africa and aims to provide practical, adaptable solutions.

The document includes:

• Essential elements of Diamond OA journals

• Journal Policies Template, as well as Author Statement, Conflict of Interest, and Licence Agreement templates

• Technical guidelines: elements to include in article landing pages and the full text of the article, displaying licensing information, and general advice regarding journal websites and accessibility.