Training, Toolkits & Community Engagement

Training and community engagement go hand in hand. The CRAFT-OA consortium represents a small sample of the European Diamond OA community. We engaged our Diamond OA colleagues across Europe and beyond to learn about the technical challenges facing the broader community and to provide resources to overcome them. To do this, over the project’s 3-year duration, we created and participated in training sessions and other events (both our own and externally organised). Together with the DIAMAS project, CRAFT-OA also helped establish the European Diamond Capacity Hub (EDCH) Registry & Forum, including the development of frameworks for onboarding, community engagement, moderation, messaging, and narratives (see this report).

These activities foster the development and long-term growth of the European Diamond OA community.

Technical Standards Toolkit (for Diamond OA publishers)

The Technical Standards Toolkit is a collection of training materials and sessions, developed within CRAFT-OA, organised by topics related to implementing technical publishing standards. It is a critical resource for Diamond OA publishers seeking to deepen their knowledge and ensure that the technical aspects of their journals are set up for established technical standards and requirements, thereby making their journals and content more professional and in line with FAIR principles. In the short video below, learn about our process.

Presentation on training developed in CRAFT-OA. Download the slides for this presentation here: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17405441

1

Inquired about the standards and requirements for Diamond OA publishing.

Standards Report

2

Determined the knowledge gaps and challenges faced by Diamond OA*.

Challenges Report

3

Developed training materials and sessions on implementing technical standards

Toolkit

4

Integrated selected material into the Publisher’s Living Handbook for Diamond OA.

Living Handbook

*The community training needs and a suggested curriculum were also documented in a Gitbook: “Curriculum for upskilling trainings”

About the Technical Standards Toolkit:

Core Topics

identifiers
metadata
consent
website features
overarching features, like publishing software
a FAIR publishing self-assessment toolkit

Modes of Training

self-paced courses
webinar recordings
slide decks
recorded coffee lectures
self-assessment grid
gitbook

For a deeper dive into our work on the Technical Standards Toolkit, read this blog post.

Important: The toolkit is part of a larger collection of resources for Diamond OA publishers, the Publisher’s Living Handbook, curated by CRAFT-OA. The Publisher’s Living Handbook includes a selection of the training materials created within CRAFT-OA, as well as additional materials developed within CRAFT-OA that address technical concerns for Diamond Open Access publishers. As the name implies, The Publisher’s Living Handbook is set up to be “living”, meaning that the Diamond OA publishing community members will continually update it as technical standards and the need for training evolve. The Publisher’s Living Handbook is embedded in the European Diamond Discovery Hub (EDCH).

Diamond Open Access Starter toolKit (DO.ASK)

As we discussed within the community, we learned that many Diamond OA journal platform managers and technical staff face similar challenges and share questions about starting and maintaining institutional publishing services. DO.ASK is a valuable reference document that provides answers to specific questions that arise at different points in the life of a publishing service. The document can be found inside the Publisher’s Living Handbook.

Visit DO.ASK

CRAFT-OA Community Engagement

To develop and disseminate training materials, CRAFT-OA engaged with the broader community through training sessions, workshops, and events hosted by CRAFT-OA and at external events focused on the technical aspects of Diamond OA publishing. Below is a list of these events and workshops; many on the “Organised by CRAFT-OA” list are included in the Technical Standards Toolkit above.

Organised by CRAFT-OA

CRAFT-OA conference – “Crafting the future of Diamond Open Access: technical, social & political perspectives of scholarly publishing” (Göttingen, Oct 2025)

Meet the Experts Workshop Series (online: various dates; open link for longer descriptions and links to slides/recordings)

29 Aug 2025: OJS upgrade
5 Sep 2025: Migrating to OJS
12 Sep 2025: OJS Containerization (Docker)
26 Sep 2025: Configuration options in OJS
17 Oct 2025: Theming

CRAFT-OA Coffee Lecture series (online: various dates; open link for longer descriptions and links to slides/recordings)

26 Nov 2024: Wie nutze ich ORCID, DOI und ROR? (in German)
10 Feb 2025: OpenAIRE guidelines: integration into the OpenAIRE Graph for maximum interoperability
5 Mar 2025: Technical standards of journal hosting. An overview for beginners
5 Jun 2025: Self-archiving policy – benefits and implementation at TIP Open Publishing
12 Jun 2025: GDPR support – PKP applications (OJS/OMP/OPS)
26 Sep 2025: Enhancing technological competence in the process of scholarly publishing

CRAFT-OA Summer Schools for Journal Editors (in person; open links below for individual overviews)

Diamond Open Access: Auf Schatzsuche mit CRAFT-OA und der EZB (online: May 2025, June 2025)

Metadata Intro & Metadata “Healthcheck” – a webinar with Crossref (online: 1 Apr 2025)

Creating JATS XML from DOCX documents on HRČAK (Zagreb: Dec 2023, Jan 2024, Mar 2024, May 2024, Sep 2024, Feb 2025)

The OpenAIRE Graph and its Connection with EOSC and the EOSC EU Node (online: Dec 2024)

Creating Community-Driven Pathways to Equitable, Open Scholarly Publishing With DIAMAS, CRAFT-OA, PALOMERA webinars (online: Jun 2023, Feb 2024, Nov 2024)

IPTP Technical Event (Turin: Oct 2024)

OJS: Experiences and Recommendations (online: Oct 2024)

Refining Croatian journals for a Diamond Open Access future (online: Oct 2024)

Shaping Diamond OA: Criteria for Journals (online: May 2024)

Advanced usage of OJS for journal editors (Zagreb: Apr 2024)

Authentication and Authorization (online: 23 Nov 2023)

FitSM Foundation Workshop (online: Nov 2023) (internal for consortium: CRAFT-OA trained project members in IT service management to ensure project-wide consistency in providing technical support to the Diamond Open Access community.)

External events

CRAFT-OA consortium members are very active in their national communities as well as at the international level, which was important for maintaining an overview of the community needs and wishes. Below is a comprehensive list of events where CRAFT-OA engaged with the community.