The ‘No-fee open access publishing in Africa policy brief’ is aimed at the leadership of African institutions. It provides an overview of no-fee open access (OA) publishing, often referred to as Diamond OA publishing, and shows how Diamond OA journals can help to achieve the goals of more equitable, inclusive, impactful and trusted publishing. The Policy Brief emphasises collective responsibility and collaborations among institutions, research funders and policymakers and recommends actions that leaders of African institutions can take to foster and sustain Diamond OA publishing. 

Key recommendations for African institutional leaders include: 

• Recognize Diamond OA journals as strategic research assets.
• Create and safeguard a dedicated budget line for Diamond OA journal publishing.
• Formally value editing, reviewing and journal governance in promotion and performance systems.
• Align institutional and national policies with Diamond OA and open science principles.
• Collaborate across institutions and countries to share journal publishing platforms, training and support services.

Recommendations made in this Policy Brief arise out of the ‘Collaboration for sustainable open access publishing in Africa’ project, implemented by EIFL, African Journals Online (AJOL) and the West and Central African Research and Education Network (WACREN) with funding from Wellcome. Members of No-fee OA Publishing in Africa Community of Practice, set up within the project, co-authored this Policy Brief. 

Cite as: Chekole, A., Arogundade, F. Q., Aamira, B., Chilimo, W., Havemann, J., Jansen, S., Kuchma, I., Leonard, A., Levy, M., Luescher, T., Mwesigwa, A., Phiri, L., Ševkušić, M., Smith, I., & Wella, K. (2026). No-fee Open Access Publishing in Africa Policy Brief. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18566487

The document ‘Funding sources of African no-fee open access journals’ supplements this brief by listing different funding sources.