Since launching on 29 January 2026, OJC has raised $2.6M in library investment for the first year of its programme. Funds raised will provide financial support to 278 diamond open access journals in the arts, humanities, social sciences, and science, engineering, technology and mathematics.
The 2-year grant will accelerate OJC’s development, including building core technical features that leverage current open infrastructure. These comprise usage dashboards for libraries and authors, financial reporting tools, and a community engagement hub for journals and publishers. It will also support the legal and financial groundwork needed to share raised library funds equitably and transparently across OJC’s journals collections.
Professor Caroline Edwards, OJC Executive Director, said of the award: “It’s fantastic that this grant from the Gates Foundation will strengthen OJC’s potential to offer a fairer alternative to Article Processing Charges and Transformative Agreements. Supporting OJC at this critical early stage is a strong endorsement of OJC’s community-governed approach to building open publishing infrastructure. This is the way to address inequities in the current academic publishing landscape and encourage university libraries to transition their budgets away from exploitative commercial agreements.”
Open Journals Collective is a Collective Community Interest Company (CIC) based in the UK. A CIC is a special type of limited company that exists to benefit the community rather than private shareholders. OJC is currently in the process of setting up a UK-based Charity, the Open Journals Collective Foundation, which will oversee the running of the CIC from 2027 onwards.