PVLF 2026

Bengaluru Summit Pushes for Free, Barrier-Free Academic Publishing

A global summit in Bengaluru spotlighted the Diamond Open Access model, aiming to make academic research free for both authors and readers through shared funding support.
on Feb 04, 2026

The Global Summit on Diamond Open Access (DOA) held in Bengaluru was an important, worldwide event which convened researchers, publishers and organizations such as UNESCO and FAO to discuss ensuring that every human has the ability to access all scholarly information; this allows researchers to publish their work and make it accessible at no cost to either author or reader, and cost for publication is covered by national government funding or an international organization’s funding, thereby allowing researchers to publish high quality, peer-reviewed research, without the financial barrier of being unable to pay for the journal/organization or institution which published.

Each speaker highlighted the evolution of the DOA, versus earlier summits (Mexico [in 2023] and Cape Town [in 2024]), and stressed the need for developing a plan to increase DOA globally and reducing the barriers to accessing DOA. One challenge which the researchers found, was competing against commercial journals; the researchers are also looking for new sources of funding, such as CSR funds, so that they can support both scientific and broad access publishing.