# Episciences: A sustainable Economic Model for Diamond Open Access Overlay Journals

Raphaël Tournoy, Céline Barthonnat, Camille Fontvieille, Agnès Magron, Hélène Lowinger, Emmanuelle Perrin, Ariane Rolland

► To cite this version:

Raphaël Tournoy, Céline Barthonnat, Camille Fontvieille, Agnès Magron, Hélène Lowinger, et al. Episciences: A sustainable Economic Model for Diamond Open Access Overlay Journals. DIAMAS final project conference, Jun 2025, Brussels, Belgium. hal-05096592

HAL Id: hal-05096592

https://hal.science/hal-05096592v1

Submitted on 4 Jun 2025

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# Episciences: A sustainable Economic Model for Diamond Open Access Overlay Journals

R. Tournoy (CCSD), C. Barthonnat (CCSD), C. Fontvieille (CCSD), A. Magron (CCSD), H. Lowinger (Inria), E. Perrin (Inria), A. Rolland (Institut Fourier)

Episciences represents an innovative and sustainable approach to Diamond Open Access (OA) publishing through its overlay journal platform episciences.org. As a pioneer in the overlay journal ecosystem, Episciences demonstrates how diverse funding streams can create a resilient economic foundation for Diamond OA publishing while strengthening the scholarly commons through an academic-led, academic-funded model that is not profit-driven.

Episciences offers a cost-efficient publishing solution by leveraging existing infrastructure and multi-stakeholder support. The overlay journal model eliminates costs associated with traditional publishing by building upon preprint repositories, creating a streamlined workflow that focuses resources on core scholarly communication functions.

## Episciences in figures

40 journals

More than 7,000 articles

More than 12,600 authors

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## Foundational Institutional Support

The platform's core operations are jointly ensured by its supervising bodies (CNRS, Inria, INRAE) and the Ministry of Higher Education and Research. This institutional backing provides essential stability and demonstrates public organizations' commitment to academic-led publishing ecosystems and diamond OA. Additionally, Inria and Institut Fourier provide targeted support for journals in Computer sciences and Mathematics.

## Episciences joins the SCOSS family

Episciences' selection for the Global Sustainability Coalition for Open Science Services (SCOSS) funding program represents significant international recognition of our essential role in the open science infrastructure. This crowdfunding mechanism enables libraries and institutions worldwide to contribute to Episciences' sustainability through a transparent, coordinated approach. SCOSS support demonstrates the global scholarly community's commitment to collectively maintaining critical Diamond OA infrastructure beyond national boundaries and traditional funding models.

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This diversified, academic-led funding model ensures that Episciences can provide high-quality publishing services without transferring costs to authors or readers, thereby strengthening the commons in scholarly publishing. It makes knowledge more accessible, equitable, and community-driven, demonstrating that Diamond OA publishing can be economically sustainable when stakeholders across the research ecosystem share responsibility for maintaining essential scholarly communication infrastructure outside of profit-driven publishing models.

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