We offer funding for scholar-led journals that wish to convert to a sustainable open access business model. The journals of OLEcon publish Open Access free of article processing charges for authors, this is called Diamond Open Access. Diamond Open Access journals do not charge authors or readers directly. They require alternative funding, e.g. from research institutions or research funders. ZBW engages itself for Diamond Open Access because there is a need for APC-free Open Access in business and economics studies. We will provide support for the sustainable financing of the journals. We plan to establish a consortium of libraries for the long-term funding of OLEcon journals.

We offer the following services:

• financial support during the transition process; support for the long-term funding via library consortia
• advice for journal editors during the whole transition process
• journal hosting services via a partner of ZBW, including support and training for the software Open Journal Systems

We welcome expressions of interest from editors of journals that fulfil the following criteria:

• relevant for German economics and business studies
• employ a peer review procedure
• have a mixed editorial board / editorial team from different research institutions
• publish articles from authors from different research institutions (no „Hauszeitschriften“ that only publish research from one single research institution)
• are scholar-led or strive to become scholar-led

We support:

• journals that currently appear under a subscription business model (Closed Access)
• journals that currently are Open Access
• if relevant criteria are met, we can also support newly founded journals

If you are interested in a transition to Diamond Open Access or if you are currently planning to start a new journal, please do not hesitate to contact us.

• more visibility: Open Access journals are more visible that journals that keep their content behind paywalls.
• more innovative: in the last years, several research funders updated their Open Access policies and demand that publications that result from research funded by grants must be published in Open Access journals (e.g., Coalition S). Open Access journals therefore have an advantage in the competition for submissions.
• more attractive for authors: Diamond Open Access journals are more attractive for authors since they do not have to afford article processing charges. At ZBW, we observed this for our journals “Wirtschaftsdienst” and “Intereconomics”: after the transition to Open Acess the journals had more page views and got more submissions than before.
• scholar-led: OLEcon journals are scholar-led. Therefore, the editors can make decisions independently of any commercial publishing house.