Open Research Europe (ORE)’s new platform is now live, opening up new opportunities for over 2.5 million researchers across Europe who wish to publish open access without author-facing fees. 

What’s new? 

Aligning with the Diamond open access philosophy, ORE is now hosted by CERN, an international non-profit organisation. ORE has also transitioned to a collaborative governance model, where a consortium of 17 research funding and performing organisations make decisions collectively to remain accountable to the research community. All researchers affiliated in the 11 countries covered by ORE funders are now eligible to publish on the platform. ORE and Diamond OA publishing venues have complementary purposes and share a common vision: scholarly communication should be open, equitable, and shaped by the research community itself.

A distinctive and open publication model 

ORE accepts a wide range of outputs produced during a research project’s life cycle, including research and method articles, study protocols, data notes, open letters, replication studies, negative findings and confirmatory results, making more of the research process visible. Where Diamond OA journals are typically thematic, ORE publishes across all scientific disciplines, and welcomes interdisciplinary articles. The focus is on the quality of the research and on transparency. While ORE offers a shared, English-language venue open to all disciplines, Diamond OA journals bring something different: strong ties to the communities they serve, recognised expertise in their fields and, for many, publishing in several languages.

What’s in for Diamond OA journals? 

ORE’s new infrastructure is built on Open Journal Systems (OJS), a free, open-source software for the management of peer-reviewed scholarly publishing, managed by the Public Knowledge Project, used by many Diamond OA journals. All new OJS features developed specifically for ORE will be made freely available to the 58,000 journals using the software worldwide, transferring value to the wider scholarly publishing community. 

ORE publishes using the Publish, Review, Curate (PRC) model: after rigorous prechecks, articles are published with a DOI for immediate viewing and citation, then undergo open peer review, with reports and reviewer names made public. This model is also used by some Diamond OA publishing communities, such as Episciences, Peer Community In, and SciPost. 

ORE's implementation of this model at scale creates opportunities for knowledge exchange across the scholarly publishing community. Together with the experience of Diamond OA initiatives that are already exploring open peer review and alternative editorial workflows in line with the Diamond OA Standard (DOAS), these developments can inform ongoing discussions about transparency, quality assurance and sustainable publishing practices. 

A strengthened commitment to open science and European infrastructure 

ORE was launched by the European Commission in 2021 to offer EU-funded researchers a no-fee open access venue. It is now hosted and operated by CERN, while the 17 research funding and performing organisations that finance it jointly oversee its strategy. This collective backing reflects a wider commitment by European funders to make scholarly communication open by default and to strengthen public, community-led control over publishing infrastructure. Some of these funders, such as the French National Research Agency (ANR) and the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT), also support Diamond OA through initiatives such as the EDCH. Claire Giry, CEO of ANR explains: 

“Open Research Europe is a collective endeavour to strengthen open, equitable and transparent scholarly communication and to support new publishing models. Joining this collaborative initiative alongside CNRS and other funding and performing institutions is complementary to our support for Diamond Open Access, including through the European Diamond Capacity Hub, as part of our commitment to bibliodiversity.”

Izaskun Lacunza Aguirrebengoa, director of FECYT, another funder supporting both ORE and the EDCH, adds:

“Our support for Open Research Europe reflects our commitment to building sustainable, high-quality publishing models that serve researchers and make scientific knowledge openly available to all. Together with our efforts to strengthen Diamond Open Access, we aim to support complementary alternatives to traditional publishing models and demonstrate the value of publicly funded, community-driven scholarly publishing.”

Supporting a diverse Diamond OA ecosystem

Through OPERAS, the EDCH has partnered with ORE to develop synergies between the platform’s publishing model and the Diamond OA community, with plans to be further explored in 2027. The EDCH continues to support Diamond OA publishing through its services, resources, training and community. These aim to strengthen publishing practices, support their long-term development and improve their visibility and discoverability. By bringing together journals, institutions, service providers and other stakeholders, the EDCH contributes to a stronger and more connected European Diamond OA ecosystem. This includes giving Diamond OA journals greater visibility as part of a broader European Diamond OA ecosystem, while supporting them in communicating what makes their disciplinary and community-based approaches valuable to researchers and institutions.

Find out more 

Researchers interested in publishing or reviewing with Open Research Europe can learn more about the platform and its submission process at https://ore.eu. To hear more about the platform, join the launch webinar on 1 December 2026: https://cern.ch/ore-launch. 

Diamond OA publishers interested in strengthening their capacity, visibility and connections with the wider community can explore the EDCH's services and resources at edch.eu.