Abstract:

In order to counter the financial and infrastructural dependencies of academia on large commercial publishers, science policy is increasingly calling for and promoting publication models that are orientated towards the common good. These approaches, known as Diamond Open Access, should be based on free access for readers and publishers, non-commercial business models and scholar-led infrastructures. This poses new challenges for academic libraries. This article presents the example of Berlin Universities Publishing, the joint Open Access publishing house of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin and Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin. In addition to the aspects of institutional cooperation and reputation building, the focus is on sustainable financing and the extent to which current concepts of Diamond Open Access do justice to the practice of institutional publishing service providers.