Written by Léa Foumany for CRAFT-OA website
From June 23rd to 27th, 2025, the 2nd CRAFT-OA Summer School brought together Diamond OA advocates, journal editors, and platform managers at the University of Coimbra. The programme combined trainings and presentations on topics like OJS, XML workflows, and metadata quality. Kicking off the week, participants were introduced to six key results from the CRAFT-OA project – core themes that guided the workshops and discussions throughout the week.
Foundation & first insights
During the first day, participants were introduced to the latest advancements in Open Journal Systems (OJS), particularly the most recent 3.5 version. Notable improvements include multilingual support, XML-based publishing workflows, and extensibility through updated plugins. This was followed by a session on the OpenAIRE Publisher Dashboard. Through a live demonstration, it was shown how the dashboard provides Diamond OA publishers and journals with access to regularly updated metrics on scholarly output, funding sources, and broader impact indicators, such as publications linked to datasets and software. The final session of Day 1 introduced the upcoming workshop series with a hands-on walkthrough of setting up a journal in OJS. Using pre-configured demo journals, participants explored best practices – from workflow settings and search indexing to user management – geared toward Diamond OA publishing.
Deepening skills through workshops
The following days were packed with workshops and technical sessions, continuing the practical momentum set the previous day. A central focus was placed on cross-feature enhancements in OJS, where participants explored improvements designed to streamline editorial workflows, enhance metadata quality, and support multilingual publishing. These sessions allowed editors to engage directly with the latest functionalities and exchange experiences. Throughout these days, multiple OJS workshops provided valuable practical training, enabling participants to experiment with the platform in demo environments. A focus on XML workflows offered insight into structured publishing processes and the benefits of XML-based production for long-term preservation, accessibility, and discoverability.
Innovation & tools for Diamond OA
Thursday opened with a session on the Indexes Knowledge Base – a developing online resource that compiles structured information on academic publication indexes. This evolving catalogue highlights key characteristics of indexes, especially their data and metadata requirements, providing editors with a practical reference for improving their journals’ visibility and compliance. Building on this foundation, participants were introduced to seven new OJS plugins specifically developed for Diamond OA journals. Among them, the DISCO Plugin (OJS Discoverability Companion) attracted particular attention. Closely linked to the Knowledge Base, DISCO acts as a visual guide for editors, helping them understand and meet indexing requirements, enrich metadata, and ultimately enhance the discoverability of their journals.
Looking ahead – building the future of Diamond OA
The final day of the Summer School looked toward the future of Diamond Open Access by presenting two key outcomes of the CRAFT-OA project. First, the Publisher’s Living Handbook – a dynamic, community-driven resource – offers ongoing technical guidance and best practices for Diamond OA publishing. Alongside it, the Diamond Discovery Hub (DDH) was introduced: a user-friendly, central registry of scholar-led and institutionally published OA journals across Europe. Both tools will be integrated into the European Diamond Capacity Hub (EDCH), a collective infrastructure supporting Diamond OA publishers, service providers, and tool developers. Together, these initiatives lay important groundwork for a more connected, visible, and sustainable Diamond OA ecosystem.
Open Access, open minds
Beyond the workshops and presentations, the Summer School also offered plenty of opportunities for discussion, exchange, and informal networking. Participants enjoyed dinners, lunch & coffee breaks, the beautiful city of Coimbra through a guided tour, as well as a tour of the historic university campus, where participants could even visit the university prison!
Many more exciting presentations took place – all of which you can find in our dedicated Zenodo community.
Curious to explore the full scope of CRAFT-OA’s results? Join us at our final conference in Göttingen, 6-8 October 2025.