Terms of Service

• Publish under a Diamond Open Access model
• License all published content under a Creative Commons license of your choice
• Ensure authors retain copyright to their work
• List the University of Edinburgh as the publisher on all digital, printed and web matter
  • Note: this is because the University of Edinburgh owns and manages the accounts used to allocate and distribute the ISSNs, ISBNs and DOIs used for all published content. We do not take Intellectual Property (IP) or copyright to content – books and journal titles are owned by the respective author/editor and article content is owned by their respective authors.
• Include the following information in your website footer and published content (on the copyright page and either the front or back cover, if applicable).
  • Edinburgh University Library logo and Edinburgh Diamond graphic
  • Publisher: University of Edinburgh
  • Open Access & Creative Commons statement e.g. “Journal Name is Open Access and published under a Creative Commons XXX license.”
  • ISSN/ISBN
  • DOI (published content only).
• Adhere to the Edinburgh Diamond Publication Ethics Statement on a best endeavours basis
• Be responsible for managing publication workflow, including submissions, peer review and production processes (where relevant)
• Be responsible and accountable for all content published in your book/journal. Please note: the Library reserves the right to investigate content that contradicts our Publication Ethics Statement or which may be deemed illegal, and to take said content down.
• Allow Edinburgh Diamond to submit your journal and book content to indexers and international library catalogues
• Allow Edinburgh Diamond to gather metrics related to your book and journal to create reports
• Give six months' notice if moving your book or journal from the Edinburgh Diamond service

For journal editors only 

Journal editors additionally agree to:

• Publish content as per the journal's publication schedule
• Publish at least five research articles a year
• Publish both full issues and individual article PDFs
  • Note: Part of the Edinburgh Diamond service includes disseminating your journal issues to various libraries and indexers. Many libraries only accept full issue PDFs, and many indexers only accept individual articles. To make your journal as discoverable and well-used as possible, we aim to cover all bases.
• Include submitted, accepted and published dates on article PDFs
• Inform the Edinburgh Diamond team upon the publication of every new issue, so that we may register your DOIs, distribute your metadata, disseminate your issue/articles, and help promote your content
• Have an Editorial Board that consists of at least five affiliated academics with relevant expertise. Ideally, all Editorial Board members should not be based at the University of Edinburgh (even if the whole editorial team is).
• Inform Edinburgh Diamond of any journal management changes
• Have a management succession plan in place, particularly for journals where editorship changes frequently
• For student journals only:
  • Student journal editors additionally agree to have an academic sponsor in place. An academic sponsor is a permanent member of staff involved with a course or society who has agreed to be an ambassador for the journal. They are unlikely to work on the journal itself but agree to facilitate editorial team changes when students are unable to do so themselves.
  • Students editors need to have an Editorial Board or Advisory Board, as indicated above, but this may be composed of students. In order to be indexed, at least two member should have a PhD or equivalent qualification.