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By joining OJC, libraries support the long-term sustainability of university-based and independent non-profit journals.

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The OJC Model.

Launched in January 2026, OJC is designed to raise collective investment for a transition to academic-led, non-profit diamond open access. Published by world leaders in non-profit and university-based digital publishing, the initiative offers libraries and funders the opportunity to support equitable research infrastructure for journals.

We offer three collections of diamond open access journals.

01

The Multidisciplinary Collection

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02

The Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences Collection.

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03

The Science, Engineering, Technology & Maths Collection.

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OJC is leading a growing academic movement.

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The challenge

From December 2026 onwards, library investment raised by OJC will be shared with journals in our 3 Launch Collections.

We have conducted extensive stakeholder interviews with diamond open access publishers, editors, and non-profit platform providers. This has led to the collective design of an equitable revenue distribution model in which journals included in OJC Collections can receive regular payments according to their size and need.

We will share library funding raised through our investment programme with OJC journals. This has been designed to supplement any existing funding or income that journals receive, including support via their publishers' library membership models, income from scholarly societies, or funding from university departments.

Any journal included in the OJC Collections that already receives funding from their publisher, scholarly society, or an institutional partner will only be eligible for reduced "top-up" funding (see Package C in the table below). This would include, for example, journals already receiving support via library membership models that cover some of their publishing costs. 

This is to ensure that libraries are not being asked to pay twice for the same thing - but it also acknowledges that current library membership models do not raise sufficient funds for diamond OA journals to be sustainable long term as these schemes cannot afford to pay for things such as copyediting or editorial management support.

Journal Funding & Revenue Distribution.

OJC funding packages are indicative of the revenue distribution of funds raised by the OJC across all journals within its collections. These funds are paid to journals on an annual recurring basis. The amount of funding that each journal is eligible to receive will be determined by a Funding Committee composed solely of Library Members. This Committee will draw on a revenue distribution model that calculates annual journal payments using criteria such as number of articles published per year, and relevant production costs (like typesetting, proofreading, or translation). All journals receive the same standard base payment to cover costs such as journal hosting, indexing, and digital preservation, irrespective of the size of the journal.

Funding allocation will also take into account whether journals receive support from pre-existing income streams, such as library membership models or institutional funds. Revenue allocation will range from £5,000 - £25,000 per journal, depending on the journal’s size, operating expenses, and any additional sources of funding available to them.

Revenue distribution package column headers
Package & Band Journal Size No. of articles p/year Annual Funding
Package A (full support) — Full support for journals with no funding or income.
Package A (full support)
Full support for journals with no funding or income.
1 Tiny 10 £7,500
2 Small 25 £10,500
3 Medium 50 £19,200
4 Large 100 £26,000
5 Very Large 500 £46,000
Package B (partial support) — Partial support for journals with minimal funding or income.
Package B (partial support)
Partial support for journals with minimal funding or income.
1 Tiny 10 £6,000
2 Small 25 £9,000
3 Medium 50 £17,700
4 Large 100 £24,000
5 Very Large 500 £43,000
Package C (top-up support) — Top-up support for journals with established funding or income.
Package C (top-up support)
Top-up support for journals with established funding or income.
1 Tiny 10 £5,000
2 Small 25 £7,000
3 Medium 50 £9,350
4 Large 100 £12,500
5 Very Large 500 £24,500

We will provide documentation, training events, and regular community meet-ups for OJC members.

Journal Flipping & Growing the Collections.

We have designed a scalable pathway to migrate journals away from commercial publishers and subscription models. Titles can "flip" to diamond open access with the OJC, empowering libraries to cancel commercial journal subscriptions or walk away from Transformative Agreements. Working together, libraries, academics, scholarly associations, and university-affiliated publishers can build a fairer and more affordable journals publishing system.

Join the movement
A collection of academic journal covers from OJC publishers