PublishOA landscape report front coverThe PublishOA project is co-led by the Royal Irish Academy (RIA) and the Trinity Long Room Hub. The project, funded by the National Open Research Forum (NORF), aimed to evaluate the feasibility of establishing a Diamond Open Access (DOA) publishing platform for Irish scholarly publishing, a model that does not charge fees to authors or readers.

The report, published yesterday 10 June 2025, surveys publishers on the island of Ireland and assesses the readiness of Irish scholarly publishers to transition to Open Access (OA) publishing. It also examines their knowledge of the practices, needs, challenges and opportunities of DOA.  

The Government of Ireland has committed to putting in place measures by 2030 that will achieve 100% open access to research publications. Internationally, the high costs of academic journals has, in recent years, acted as a barrier to academics and students in smaller or less wealthy institutions, and independent scholars. From an Irish perspective, the impacts are felt through the lack of indigenous publishing, including Irish language publications.

Key recommendations in the report include:

  1. Provide staff to create a robust network that supports publishers in transitioning to OA by offering knowledge, training, practical support and access to grants.
  2. Enable publishers that are already publishing Diamond OA books and journals to collaborate and create a national platform built on Open Journal Systems/Open Monograph Press.
  3. Provide an option for a portal to consolidate Irish published work, regardless of publication location, as much Irish interest work is published by various publishers in Ireland and abroad.
  4. Utilise the Directory of Irish Publishers and the Directory of Irish Diamond Open Access Journals published by PublishOA to build a network of publishers.
  5. Establish a grant system to directly fund publishers and authors for OA publication costs, training and networking opportunities.

Read the full report here.

More resources from the PublishOA project:

  1. Digital Directory of Irish Publishers: The first comprehensive online directory of Irish publishers. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8047015
  2. Directory of Irish Diamond Open Access Journals: A list of open access journals in Ireland. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15607985
  3. Open Access publishing guidelines for publishers: Practical guidance for publishers transitioning to open access. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11235895
  4. Open Access publishing guidelines for authors: Practical information for authors seeking to publish open access. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11236652
  5. Publisher Engagement and Support Program 2022–2026: Mentoring and support for publishers, including networking events. Survey of publishers: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8432496