The academic publishing system has arrived at an impasse. Our universities continue to funnel money towards profit-driven commercial publishers, that obtain revenues higher than any other sector, with profit margins sometimes exceeding 30%-40%. This is possible only because in academic publishing the bulk of the work is shouldered by researchers for free, so the costs of publishing are kept at a minimum while the prices for reading and publishing are stretched to the maximum. This impacts the quality of research, for example with some journals using special issues and sister journals as a growth strategy, and puts researchers from less wealthy universities at a clear disadvantage.
Given this toxic landscape, it is time that we as researchers re-orient ourselves to more sustainable publishing models. Hence during the 2-day event "Towards new Horizons of Scholarly Publishing", happening on the 5th and 6th of February 2026, in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, we will explore together what Diamond Open Access (DOA) has to offer, which is a fully open publishing model where no fees are asked for publishing or reading. The purpose of this meeting will be to familiarize you with DOA and create a bridge between already existing publisher initiatives and researchers. Our speakers will address a breadth of topics concerning DOA, such as: the national and European infrastructure of DOA, challenges in transitioning to such a system, starting and managing a DOA journal or flipping a journal, and many more. At the end of the conference our goal is to form a national committee of scientists interested in continuing the work of making this transition towards DOA happen.
Location: Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
Date: February 5-6, 2026, 09:00 - 17:00 (excluding social activities)
Registration:
Register here. Free of charge, but limited seats available.
Detailed schedule: follow this link.
