Untangling the Future of Diamond Access

Abstract

This paper examines the future of Diamond Open Access as a non-commercial, community-driven model for scholarly publishing that challenges the growing marketization of research dissemination. Drawing on recent initiatives, such as DIAMAS, Craft-OA, the Global Diamond Summits, and ALMASI, it analyzes the existing definitions and standards for Diamond journals, highlighting efforts in Europe and Latin America to establish common criteria for quality, sustainability, and visibility. It emphasizes the need to move beyond universal rankings and impact factors toward context-sensitive federated indexing systems, such as Latindex, SciELO, Redalyc, Biblat, AJOL, or DOAJ, that reflect the diversity of academic communities. The paper argues for a re-communalization of scholarly publishing through institutional support, reliable indexation, and the recognition of multi-indexed journals as legitimate indicators of quality. Ultimately, it proposes reclaiming academic control from corporate infrastructures by reinforcing autonomy, multilingualism, and bibliodiversity in research evaluation and publication practices.