KOALA consortium service

The KOALA funding model provides fair and sustainable funding for quality-assured APC-free open access publications ("Diamond Open Access"). It reduces financial barriers for authors and thus facilitates participation in OA publications.

Consortial financing is thus a science-friendly alternative to author-facing publishing and is widely supported by relevant science policy actors.

With the KOALA consortium program, we are supplementing and further developing the TIB's consortium activities in the field of Open Access.

Here you can find further information for:

What our partners say:

Jochen Schirrwagen, UB RWTH Aachen

The participation of the RWTH in the KOALA consortia provides significant advantages: it enables our authors to publish free of charge in funded journals and thus make their research accessible to a broad audience. At the same time, the sustainable operation of these journals is ensured so that scientific content remains available in the long term. It is also particularly important that control over the journals remains in the hands of the scientific community - a crucial step towards greater independence and transparency in scientific publishing.

Dr. Thomas Mutschler-Herrmann, ThULB Jena

From the perspective of the Thuringian University and State Library Jena, the consortial project KOALA-AV makes an important contribution to the transformation of scientific journals into Open Access. It enables libraries to cooperatively finance scholar-led scientific open access journals and helps to pool resources and reduce financial barriers for researchers. The project thus provides an important impetus towards free and open scholarly communication.

Dr. Kai Matuskiewicz, Philipps-Universität Marburg/FID Media

The KOALA model closes a significant gap in the publishing landscape and addresses a previously blind spot in funding policy. With its clear commitment to Diamond Open Access, KOALA sends a strong signal for community-driven publication structures. The practice-oriented approach in the development of the model is particularly convincing: instead of following abstract policy guidelines, practicable solutions were developed that fit seamlessly into the existing structures of libraries and academic journals. The well thought-out and functional KOALA workflows enable efficient integration into these structures and offer the open access community a sustainable solution.

Ben Kaden, Open Access Brandenburg

The KOALA model represents a convincing approach to how libraries, academic institutions and even private individuals can jointly finance Diamond Open Access in a sustainable way. By moving away from APCs (Article Processing Charges), KOALA offers an alternative approach to the publication of scientific and scholarly journals. Particularly noteworthy is the fact that the model reveals the actual costs of publishing scientific and scholarly periodicals. This is a significant step towards greater transparency in scientific and scholarly communication. KOALA thus offers a sustainable solution that not only reduces financial hurdles, but also strengthens and further develops the open access culture as a whole.

Dr. Bernhard Mittermaier, Head of Central Library, Forschungszentrum Jülich

Scholar-led publishing in Diamond Open Access is a necessary alternative to commercial publishing models. While the transformative agreements of major publishers originally promised to advance Open Access, it has become clear that they hardly lead to genuine journal flipping – instead, costs remain high, and dependence on commercial providers persists. This is where KOALA comes in, creating a transparent, independent, and cost-efficient model through its consortial funding. It is an important approach to establishing a fair and sustainable publishing landscape beyond the major publishers in the long term.

Kathleen Heft, Special Subject Collection Social and Cultural Anthropology, EthnOA

With the project "EthnOA – Open Access in the Ethnological Disciplines," the Specialized Information Service for Social and Cultural Anthropology supports the Open Access transformation of ethnological journals. The consortial funding model of KOALA stabilizes the predominantly voluntary work of editors and editorial teams and contributes to ensuring the high academic and infrastructural quality of ethnological Diamond Open Access journals for the future. .

Demmy Verbeke, KU Leuven Libraries

Open investments such as collectively funding Open Access, and Open Science infrastructure in general, should be prioritized by academic libraries. Collective funding makes Diamond OA possible and promotes not-for-profit and community-governed approaches of scholarly communication over for-profit and privately-owned ones. Consortial offers like KOALA make it extra easy for libraries to adopt this approach.

Sharla Lair, Lyrasis

I am Sharla Lair, Senior Strategist for OA and Scholarly Communication Initiatives at Lyrasis, a consortium in the US. I build funding communities to sustain collaboratively funded Open programs. One such program, the Open Access Community Investment Program (OACIP), funds Diamond OA journals through a community-driven approach. To date, OACIP has sustainably funded nine journals. Similar to KOALA, OACIP is advancing a more equitable and sustainable future in scholarly research.

Kathrin Ganz and Sabrina Schotten, Open Gender Journal

The Open Gender Journal is a community-driven journal focused on intersectional gender studies. We strive to offer authors and reviewers a well-structured and supporting publication experience. KOALA's collaborative funding enables us to finance the work that makes this possible. This work includes the coordination of editorial processes, layouts, and professional proofreading, which are essential to publishing high-quality research.

News on KOALA

Success for the KOALA project

KOALA-Bundle Computer Science and Mathematics 2025-2027 financed

Podcast ”Open Science Talk” with Marco Tullney from the TIB

A dialogue about the KOALA project and how collaborative funding of open access journals by academic libraries and research institutions can work

KOALA has a new website

The consortium service for Diamond Open Access publications provides information on offers, funding and participation opportunities

KOALA consortium program

Participate

Current consortia

Consortia

Requirements

Editors and Publishers

Libraries and Research Institutions

Other Stakeholders

Jochen Schirrwagen, UB RWTH Aachen

Dr. Thomas Mutschler-Herrmann, ThULB Jena

Dr. Kai Matuskiewicz, Philipps-Universität Marburg/FID Media

Ben Kaden, Open Access Brandenburg

Dr. Bernhard Mittermaier, Head of Central Library, Forschungszentrum Jülich

Kathleen Heft, Special Subject Collection Social and Cultural Anthropology, EthnOA

Demmy Verbeke, KU Leuven Libraries

Sharla Lair, Lyrasis

Kathrin Ganz and Sabrina Schotten, Open Gender Journal

News on KOALA

Success for the KOALA project

Success for the KOALA project

Podcast ”Open Science Talk” with Marco Tullney from the TIB

Podcast ”Open Science Talk” with Marco Tullney from the TIB

KOALA has a new website

KOALA has a new website

Quicklinks

Quicklinks

Quicklinks

Quicklinks

Quicklinks

Quicklinks

Participate

Current consortia

Consortia

Requirements

Editors and Publishers

Libraries and Research Institutions

Other Stakeholders

Jochen Schirrwagen, UB RWTH Aachen

Dr. Thomas Mutschler-Herrmann, ThULB Jena

Dr. Kai Matuskiewicz, Philipps-Universität Marburg/FID Media

Ben Kaden, Open Access Brandenburg

Dr. Bernhard Mittermaier, Head of Central Library, Forschungszentrum Jülich

Kathleen Heft, Special Subject Collection Social and Cultural Anthropology, EthnOA

Demmy Verbeke, KU Leuven Libraries

Sharla Lair, Lyrasis

Kathrin Ganz and Sabrina Schotten, Open Gender Journal

Success for the KOALA project

Podcast ”Open Science Talk” with Marco Tullney from the TIB

KOALA has a new website