Diamond Open Access Day

Tuesday 24 Mar 2026, 08:30 → 17:00 Africa/Banjul

Thematic Room 2 (Banjul ICC)

Omo Oaiya (WACREN), Femi Arogundade (WACREN)

Organised by WACREN within the broader LIBSENSE and AfricaConnect4 initiatives, and held alongside the LIBSENSE Open Science Symposium and WACREN 2026 Conference, the event brings together researchers, librarians, publishers, research networks, and open infrastructure partners from across the region.

The programme addresses the full ecosystem required for sustainable, no-fee Open Access publishing, from editorial governance and quality assurance to metadata interoperability, persistent identifiers, institutional workflows, and communities of practice.

Partners, including DOAJ, DOAB, Crossref, ORCID, EIFL, and Thoth, will contribute expertise spanning journals, books, and the shared technical infrastructure that underpins open scholarly communication.

The day forms part of WACREN’s broader effort to strengthen regional scholarly publishing capacity and ensure that African research and researchers are visible, discoverable, and properly attributed within the global scholarly ecosystem. By aligning standards, open metadata practices, and participation in persistent identifier systems, the event supports the development of a coordinated, community-governed publishing infrastructure that is regionally anchored and globally interoperable.

Hosted in The Gambia at a moment of national research infrastructure development, the Diamond Open Access Day connects regional expertise with national opportunity.

 

08:30 → 09:00 Arrival & Registration

09:00 → 09:10 Opening Remarks

How journals, books, persistent identifiers (PIDs), and capacity building align within Diamond Open Access and WACREN’s coordinating role in Africa.

Speaker: Omo Oaiya (WACREN)

09:10 → 10:30 Session 1 - Journals

From Pilot to Practice: Building Sustainable Diamond OA Journals in West Africa

09:10 Collaboration for Sustainable Open Access Publishing in Africa

• State of Diamond OA in Africa
• Support for Diamond OA journals in Africa
• WACREN PublishNow pilots
• Growth of Diamond OA journals in Africa

09:30 Quality & Visibility of African Diamond OA Journals

• Representation of African Diamond OA journals in DOAJ
• DOAJ criteria and standards alignment
• Multilingual visibility and global discovery
• Aligning locally rooted journals with international quality and transparency standards

09:50 Interactive Discussion & Practical Pathways Forward

• What is working
• What needs to be strengthened
• Moving beyond pilots and calls

10:25 Session Wrap-up

• Key takeaways and pathways forward

10:30 → 11:00 Coffee Breeak

11:00 → 12:30 Session 2 – Books

From Local Books to Global Discovery: Community-Led Open Access Book Publishing

11:00 Community-Led Open Access Book Publishing: The BookHub Pilot and Diamond OA

Speaker: Fatimah Abduldayan (Federal University of Technology Minna Niger State)

11:20 Building Global Trust in Open Access Books: The Role of the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB)

11:35 Strengthening OA Book Discoverability through Open Metadata Workflow

11:50 Interactive Discussion & Practical Pathways Forward

• Institutional readiness
• Sustainability considerations

12:20 Regional Call to Action

• Empowering African academia with OA books
• Role of institutional leadership, policy, and infrastructure for books

Speaker: Omo Oaiya (WACREN)

12:30 → 13:30 Lunch

13:30 → 15:00 Session 3 – Building a Coherent PID Ecosystem for Diamond Open Access in Africa

This session explores how persistent identifiers (PIDs) can be aligned to support sustainable Diamond Open Access in Africa. Bringing together perspectives from ORCID-WACA, Crossref, institutional stewardship frameworks, and emerging integration platforms, the discussion highlights how identity, interoperability, and preservation can be coordinated within a coherent multi-PID ecosystem. The focus is on strengthening African research visibility while ensuring long-term institutional responsibility and governance.

13:30 ORCID for African Researchers

• Researcher identity and attribution
• ORCID for African OA journals and books
• Strengthening integrity and reducing predatory publishing risks

13:45 ORCID- WACA update

• Current state of affairs - from inception to date
. ORCID–WACA Community of Practice
. ORCID-WACA Ambassadors

14:00 Crossref: Strengthening Metadata Integrity and Discoverability in African Diamond OA

14:15 Institutional Stewardship in a Multi-PID Ecosystem

Aligning ORCID, DOIs and ARKs for Diamond Open Access

Speaker: Omo Oaiya (WACREN)

14:30 PIDsLink: Operationalising Multi-PID Integration in Institutional Workflows

This presentation showcases WACREN’s institutional ARK minting system and Crossref Sponsor support for Diamond OA publishers in PublishNow

Speaker: Mr Donald Seanedzu (WACREN)

14:45 Discussion & Q&A

15:00 → 15:30 Break

15:30 → 17:00 Session 4 – Capacity Building & User Communities

Building Sustainable Diamond OA Communities for Journals and Books

15:30 Communities of Practice as a Core Component of Diamond OA

• Lessons from the No-Fee Open Access Publishing Community of Practice in Africa

15:50 Interactive Discussion

• What support structures are still missin

16:20 Session Wrap-up

• Key takeaways and pathways forward

Speaker: Femi Arogundade (WACREN)