The scholarly publishing ecosystem is undergoing a transformation, with Diamond Open Access journals emerging as a key model for equitable and sustainable research dissemination. Despite offering high-quality peer-reviewed content freely to both readers and authors, Diamond OA journals often struggle with visibility, discoverability, and perceptions of professionalism. To address these challenges, the EU-funded project CRAFT-OA is developing a suite of Open Journal Systems (OJS) plugins specifically designed to enhance the visibility, interoperability, and professional standing of Diamond journals. These ‘OJS Diamond Plugins’ are a targeted Key Exploitable Result (KER) within CRAFT-OA, aimed at empowering journal editors and making the Diamond OA landscape more resilient, efficient, and aligned with broader European infrastructures such as the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).

Addressing Key Challenges in Diamond OA
One of the persistent challenges faced by Diamond journals is limited interoperability with key scholarly infrastructure. This lack of alignment often hinders inclusion in metadata aggregators, indexing services, and research catalogues. As a result, many high-quality Diamond journals remain underrecognised within the global research community. CRAFT-OA directly tackles this issue by developing tools that streamline metadata exchange and align publishing workflows with the OpenAIRE Graph and EOSC Interoperability Framework on Research Product Publishing.
The objective of the OJS Diamond Plugins is twofold: to increase the visibility of Diamond OA journals and to simplify editorial workflows, enabling editors to focus on content curation rather than administrative burden. The five plugins developed under CRAFT-OA are designed to work together to address these goals in a modular and reusable way.

Overview of the OJS Diamond Plugins

• OJS Connector for OpenAIRE Graph: This plugin updates the existing OpenAIRE export tool to ensure metadata produced by OJS journals complies with the latest OpenAIRE guidelines. By improving the quality and consistency of metadata exports, this plugin enhances the visibility and discoverability of Diamond OA journals within the OpenAIRE Graph and beyond.
• EOSC Interoperability Framework Plugin: This plugin ensures that OJS platforms align with the evolving EOSC Interoperability Framework on Research Product Publishing. The goal is to allow OJS journals to more seamlessly integrate into European research infrastructures, improving both their technical standing and their attractiveness to researchers and institutions focused on Open Science.
• OJS plugins for the integration of the OpenAIRE Broker: Using the OpenAIRE Broker service, this plugin allows local OJS systems to ingest feedback and proposals from the OpenAIRE Graph. This creates a valuable feedback loop, enriching records with missing DOIs, project links, ORCID IDs, and open access versions.
• OJS Discoverability Companion (DISCO) plugin: The DISCO plugin addresses the challenge of journal indexing by consolidating and clarifying the diverse requirements of multiple databases and aggregators. Editors often struggle with inconsistent terminology and unclear criteria across different indexes. DISCO streamlines this process by providing a unified inventory of requirements, making it easier to understand and meet indexing standards. This enhances journal visibility, improves workflow efficiency, and increases chances of inclusion in key indexes.
• Plugins to enable JATS XML based interoperability between OJS and Lodel: To support broader interoperability, this set of plugins facilitates metadata exchange between OJS, Lodel, and potentially other platforms (including Janeway). By building on established XML standards such as JATS and TEI, the plugins foster a modular approach to system integration. Comprehensive documentation ensures these tools can be reused and adapted by other platforms in the future.

Advancing Professionalisation Through Technology
Beyond the technical benefits, the OJS Diamond Plugins initiative plays a crucial role in the broader professionalization of Diamond OA journals. Many of these journals are managed by small editorial teams, often at universities or scholarly societies with limited resources. By reducing manual tasks, automating metadata handling, and supporting alignment with infrastructure like EOSC, the plugins allow editors to focus on improving the scholarly quality of their content rather than administrative overhead.
In addition, the project contributes to a shift in perception. Diamond OA journals are frequently undervalued in comparison to commercial or APC-based outlets, not because of content quality, but due to lower visibility and lack of infrastructure support. These plugins help close that gap, offering tools that can significantly enhance how Diamond journals present themselves and interact with the wider ecosystem.

Ensuring Sustainability and Reusability
A key aspect of the CRAFT-OA approach is ensuring that these tools are not only effective within OJS but also adaptable and sustainable. For each plugin, the project produces comprehensive documentation and implementation guides, enabling other developers and platforms to reuse the results. This approach supports the FAIR principles and contributes to a more robust and interconnected open access landscape.

By developing a set of targeted, standards-based plugins for the widely used OJS platform, the CRAFT-OA project directly addresses the pressing needs of Diamond Open Access journals. The OJS Diamond Plugins aim to enhance interoperability, improve visibility, and streamline editorial workflows. In doing so, they help elevate the standing of Diamond OA journals within the scholarly communication ecosystem, promoting a future where Open Access publishing is not only equitable but also professionally recognised and technically resilient.