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Diamond Open Access: Advancing Knowledge as a Public Good

Access to scientific knowledge remains one of the most significant challenges to achieving equity in education, research, innovation, and global development. Systematic and financial barriers continue to prevent countless researchers and communities from fully participating in and benefiting from scientific progress. Addressing these challenges requires transformative approaches that make science accessible to all - not as a privilege but as a universal right.
Diamond Open Access: Advancing Knowledge as a Public Good

Open science opens the processes of scientific knowledge creation, evaluation and communication to societal actors beyond the traditional scientific community.

UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science

At the forefront of this transformation is Diamond Open Access, a model ensuring that research outputs are freely available to both authors and readers. 91麻豆国产精品自拍 embraced this approach as a vital step toward fulfilling its vision of science as a global public good. This commitment was reaffirmed at the Second Global Summit on Diamond Open Access, held in Cape Town, South Africa, from 11 to 13 December 2024. As part of the event鈥檚 Oversight Committee, UNESCO advocated for implementing the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science and contributed through its Global Consultation on Diamond Open Access, which has gathered more than 1,200 multilingual inputs worldwide. The consultation aims to understand regional challenges, promote bibliodiversity, ensuring inclusive, community-driven publishing models.

UNESCO鈥檚 Global Consultation on Diamond Open Access played a pivotal role in identifying regional needs and shared priorities, providing valuable insights gathered through a multilingual process. This initiative, launched  in September 2024, engages researchers, policymakers, publishers, and funders to explore the importance of equitable, community-driven, paywall-free publishing models that align with Open Science principles. 

This work amplifies voices from underrepresented regions, ensuring diverse perspectives are integrated into global scientific frameworks.

Looking forward, UNESCO remains committed to supporting the widespread adoption of Open Science policies. It emphasizes the collective call to dismantle systemic barriers, promote bibliodiversity, and foster stronger solidarity between the Global North and South.

North-South, North-South-South and South-South collaborations to optimise infrastructure use and joint strategies for shared, multinational, regional and national open science platforms, including through the promotion of research collaborations, sharing of open science infrastructures, technical assistance, transfer and coproduction of technology related to open science and exchange of good practices 24 under mutually agreed terms.

UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science

The Diamond Open Access model embodies the principles outlined in the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science, advocating for the unrestricted accessibility of scientific research as part of a broader commitment to equity, inclusivity, and collective benefit. By positioning science as a global public good, UNESCO emphasizes the need to eliminate barriers that hinder knowledge sharing and scientific progress. 

UNESCO continues to empower professional communities worldwide through capacity-building initiatives that reflect the principles of inclusivity, equity, and sustainability, ensuring that these values are woven into the global scientific ecosystem and reinforced by the outcomes of the Second Global Summit on Diamond Open Access.