Meeting in National Library of Technology
At the beginning of June, the National Technical Library hosted the first Czech event called "National EOSC Tripartite Event and Czech Open Science Day". Both events aimed to bring all stakeholders to one table and provide them with up-to-date information on European open science policy and the status of EOSC implementation in the Czech Republic.
Alena Mizerová, director of Masaryk University Press, presented the activities of Masaryk University in the area of Diamond Open Access as part of the good practice examples.
Open Access to scientific publications is one of the pillars of Open Science. Therefore, the topic of Open Access in the Czech Republic could not be missed. Unfortunately, from our point of view, there was too much emphasis on the so-called transformative agreements, which are undoubtedly important and relevant, but the discussion on Open Access cannot be reduced to them.
From 2020, we are talking about "Diamond Open Access", a scientific publishing model in which journals do not charge authors or readers (read more here). This approach is proving to be supportive of open science ideals and is gaining increasing support across Europe (see the recent EU Council Resolution on High-quality, transparent, open, trustworthy and equitable scholarly publishing).
Masaryk University is the publisher of 45 Diamond Open Access journals, many of which have a very good reputation and are indexed by major scientific platforms. The discussion that developed around this topic showed that it would be very appropriate to promote Diamond Open Access in the Czech Republic as well. However, there is a lack of data on the funding of these journals. Masaryk University Press has decided to take up the gauntlet, join forces with other Czech publishers of "diamond" journals and provide the missing data. We believe that this will be a further step on the way not only to the recognition but also to the support of the Diamond Open Access in the Czech Republic.
A recording of the event can be found here.