What is diamond open access?
The open access model with no author-facing fee at all.
Checked 23 September 2026
A diamond open access journal publishes every article openly and charges the author nothing — no article processing charge, no submission fee, no page or colour charges. The cost of publishing is met by someone other than the author: a university, a learned society, a library consortium, a research funder or a government programme. DOAJ records 14,340 journals that state both no APC and no other fees.
How it differs from the other routes
| Route | Who pays | Author pays | Article is open |
|---|---|---|---|
| Diamond | Institution, society, consortium or funder, directly | Nothing | Yes, immediately |
| Gold | The author or their grant, per article | An APC | Yes, immediately |
| Hybrid | Subscribers, plus the author if they choose the open option | Nothing on the subscription route; an APC on the open route | Only if the APC is paid |
| Green | Subscribers; the repository is funded by its host | Nothing | The accepted manuscript, in a repository, often after an embargo |
Diamond and green are both free to the author, but they are not the same thing. In a diamond journal the published version of record is open from the day it appears. Green open access means a copy of your manuscript sits in a repository while the version of record stays behind the publisher’s paywall.
Why the model exists
Somebody still pays
Diamond is not cheap publishing; it is publishing whose cost has been moved off the author. Typically a university press, a departmental budget, a scholarly society’s membership income, a national programme or a library consortium carries the editorial and hosting costs. Much of the labour — editing, peer review, layout — is often done by academics as part of their job rather than billed per article.
What that means for a grant budget
Publishing in a diamond journal produces no publication cost to claim. That matters where a funder caps what it will reimburse per article — see the proposed NIH publication cost limits.
How to check a journal really is diamond
Look at the journal’s DOAJ record. It states separately whether the journal charges an APC and whether it has any other fees. A journal that answers no to both charges the author nothing. Our list is filtered on exactly those two fields — we do not classify journals ourselves.
Common mistake: assuming no fee means low quality. Fee and quality are separate questions. Some of the largest diamond journals are society flagships; equally, charging a high APC is no guarantee of rigour. Check indexing, the editorial board and the review process — see is a journal with no fee lower quality?
What DOAJ records
Source: DOAJ journal metadata export, 1 July 2026 (CC0). Checked 23 September 2026.