Speaker
Description
The Open Library of Humanities (OLH) is an award-winning, scholar-led publisher of humanities research based at Birkbeck, University of London. OLH plays a leading role in journal flipping, supporting the transition of titles away from commercial publishers and returning ownership to scholarly communities. Over the past two years alone, OLH has welcomed 14 journals, including several high-profile transitions from major commercial presses.
OLH’s diamond open access model is funded by over 300 member libraries through a collective funding model. Through tiered library memberships, OLH is able to sustain its publishing operations, continue to flip subscription journals, and develop Janeway, its in-house, open-source publishing platform. Since its launch, OLH has grown from 99 supporting institutions and 7 journals in 2015 to more than 340 supporting institutions and 34 journals in 2025.
Drawing on data from OLH’s latest annual report, this presentation focuses on costs and cost transparency within OLH’s diamond open access model, detailing how much participating universities contribute, how these funds are allocated across publishing activities, and how financial sustainability is achieved.
Biography:
Paula Clemente Vega is Community Outreach Manager at the Open Library of Humanities (OLH), where she leads the library membership programme and works on outreach and advocacy to support diamond open access publishing. She plays a key role in strengthening relationships with libraries and increasing the visibility of OLH. Paula holds a PhD in arts and humanities from Birkbeck, University of London.
