SciPost
Diamond means Business
ICOLC Meeting, Nice
30 September 2025
Jean-Sébastien Caux
Institute of Physics
University of Amsterdam
Institute of Physics
University of Amsterdam
What does Diamond mean anyway?
- Small scholar-run operation publishing 5 papers a year and not knowing how to deposit a DOI
- ...
- Large-scale not-for-profit independent publisher operated by professional academics, offering fully professional quality services
- lack of uniformity → 😕
Journals
- SciPost Physics
- SciPost Physics Core
- SP Lecture Notes
- SP Proceedings
- SP Codebases
- SP Comm. Rep.
- ...
~3500 publications
(up to now)
The 3 Pillars
Our business model
Our business model
The 3 key concepts
- PubFracs 🠈 ++important!
-
NAP
("Number of Associated Publications") -
APEX
Average Publication EXpenditures
APEX
\[
\mbox{APEX} = \frac{\mbox{€ operations}}{\#~~\mbox{publications}}
\]
Defined per Journal, per year
APEX
NAP
\[
\mbox{NAP} = \#~~\mbox{publications linked to an Org}
\]
"linked": affiliation, grant etc.
Defined per Org
PubFracs
Data accessibility
Organizations list page
Organization detail page (1/3)
Organization detail page (2/3)
Organization detail page (3/3)
Country-level data
Visualization tools
API
Finances
All our financial info:
scipost.org/finances/
Sponsors
Current list:
scipost.org/sponsors/
Avantages of PubFracs
- Equity, in depth
- Ultra-simple accounting
- Total transparency
- Authors not held hostage
- Researchers don't dilapidate their budgets on APCs
- No more wasted time/money in "negotiations"
Disadvantages (1)
- Based on past realizations
🠊 suffocated growth - Non-obligatory support
🠊 insufficient participation (9% !!) - Unfamiliar; ≠ subscriptions, APC 🔫
- Does not "fit" in traditional budgets
🠊 "no money for this" too often heard - Risks: all carried by SciPost
Disadvantages (2)
- Invisible (1): an APC which does not exist is less visible than one which you are billed for
- Invisible (2): no need for a "transformative agreement" means we are easily forgotten
- As on social media, the "problem cases" monopolize all the attention;
SciPost is however not a problem (for you), which represents a problem for us
The reality on the ground
- No security, bankruptcy always within sight
- We have however survived for 10 years...
- ... thanks to a minority of generous organizations
- ... and perhaps a lot of stubbornness on our side.
- Financing: too much work, too unpredictable
- War against APCs: hope fading away fast
- Insufficient/incorrectly distributed structural help/investment from topmost levels
Current situation
Current situation
Inclusion in SCOSS
SciPost at a crossroads
Doubling Down on Diamond
The SciPost Team
| J-S Caux | Founder Chairman Developer |
| Joost van Mameren | Secretary |
| Jasper van Wezel | Treasurer |
| Sergio E. Tapias Arze | Executive Director |
| Francesca Ferrari | Editorial Admin |
| George Katsikas | Developer |
| Kyros Megalos Adam | Production |