We are pleased to announce the publication of the Financial sustainability planning toolkit for Diamond OA journals, a set of three complementary resources to help editorial teams plan the finances of Diamond Open Access (OA) journals. Diamond OA journals do not charge fees for authors or readers.  

What's in the toolkit?

The toolkit includes three resources:

• Financial sustainability planning toolkit for Diamond OA journals turns good practice in Diamond OA financial sustainability into practical questions, criteria and prompts. Journals can use the toolkit to build a complete, credible three-year sustainability plan for parent institutions, funders and their own editorial communities. 
• Diamond OA financial sustainability template helps Diamond OA journal teams build a three-year financial picture of their journal. 
• Diamond OA financial sustainability template - Worked Example is a completed version of the Financial sustainability template for Diamond OA journals. It shows how a journal team might fill in each tab and interpret the results.

EIFL commissioned Rob Johnson of Research Consulting to develop the toolkit within the framework of the three-year ‘Collaboration for Sustainable Open Access Publishing in Africa’ project, implemented by EIFL, AJOL (African Journals Online) and WACREN (the West and Central African Research and Education Network), with funding from Wellcome. Through the project, EIFL awarded grants to 33 projects aiming to strengthen Diamond OA journals. Input from EIFL and EIFL grantees helped ensure that the toolkit reflects the needs and experiences of the journals and publishing communities it aims to support. Although developed in the context of Africa, the toolkit can be used by journals and publishing organizations worldwide.