This guest post is by Jane Buggle, Librarian, Institute of Art, Design + Technology (IADT).
IADT Library is delighted to announce that the IADT Journal of Research + Creativity (IJRC) has officially launched on Diamond Ireland Press, Ireland's new national Diamond Open Access publishing platform. As a library-published, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the full breadth of IADT's disciplinary life, the IJRC represents a meaningful step forward for open, inclusive, and barrier-free scholarly communication in Ireland.
The IJRC publishes a wide variety of contribution types, including:
• Academic articles and original research
• Literature reviews and case studies
• Creative works including poetry, photography, and original art
• Opinion pieces, reflections, and reports
• Film, television, and book reviews
• Interviews and interdisciplinary essays
Interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and transdisciplinary submissions are warmly welcomed, reflecting IADT's ethos as an institution where creative practice and research continually intersect.
One of the most distinctive and exciting features of the IJRC is its genuinely inclusive contributor model. Unlike many academic journals oriented exclusively towards established researchers, the IJRC is open to contributors at all career stages; undergraduate and postgraduate students, academics and researchers, practitioners and industry professionals.
Crucially, peer review is calibrated to the appropriate academic standard for each contributor category, meaning that undergraduate work is assessed on its own terms, postgraduate work on theirs, and academic research to the full standard expected of scholarly publishing. This creates a genuinely democratic scholarly space where an undergraduate exploring a creative research question can publish alongside an experienced academic, with intellectual integrity maintained throughout.
The IJRC also warmly welcomes external submissions from researchers, practitioners, and students at other higher education institutions in Ireland and internationally. All research articles undergo a rigorous double-blind peer review process, and the journal adheres to the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and is informed by the Library Publishing Coalition's Ethical Framework for Library Publishing.
The IJRC operates under a Diamond Open Access model, which means that there are no paywalls or article processing charges (APCs); it is free to read and free to publish. This commitment to Diamond OA reflects the principle that publicly funded knowledge should be publicly accessible - to students, practitioners, policymakers, and communities, not only to those with institutional journal subscriptions. In an era of rising APCs and escalating subscription costs, Diamond OA offers a genuinely equitable alternative for scholarly communication.
Diamond Ireland Press
Diamond Ireland Press, Ireland’s national Diamond Open Access publishing platform for journals and monographs, launched in May 2026. It is a key outcome of the Diamond Ireland project, funded by the National Open Research Forum (NORF), which coordinates Ireland’s national strategy for open research.
The foundations for this development were laid by Publish OA Ireland, a landscape and feasibility study conducted between late 2022 and 2025. Co-led by the Royal Irish Academy and Trinity College Dublin’s Long Room Hub, and funded by NORF, the project set out to map and better understand Ireland’s scholarly publishing landscape. Its outputs included a Diamond OA Platform Pilot and Feasibility Report, a Landscape Report on Scholarly Publishing in Ireland, and a Directory of Irish Diamond Open Access Journals.
This work was undertaken in response to the Irish Government’s National Action Plan for Open Research 2022–2030, which aims to achieve 100% open access to publicly funded scholarly publications by 2030. The findings of Publish OA Ireland identified the need for coordinated, national infrastructure to support Diamond Open Access publishing.
Building on this groundwork, the Diamond Ireland project was established as a second phase, September 2025 to December 2026, focused on implementation. Its central output is Diamond Ireland Press, which provides shared, publicly owned infrastructure for Irish journals and publishers using Open Journal Systems (OJS), a widely adopted open-source platform. The platform supports increased visibility and technical capacity while allowing journals to retain full editorial independence and identity. The Economic and Social Review was among the first journals to migrate, and the IJRC now joins this growing national initiative.
Alongside the Press, the project is also developing the Diamond Ireland Hub, a suite of national and international resources designed to support best-practice Diamond Open Access publishing. The Hub is intended as a sustainable network that complements the platform.
Further elements of the initiative include a tiered partnership model, enabling organisations to engage with Diamond Ireland Press at different levels depending on their capacity and needs, and plans for a platform-agnostic discovery layer to improve access to Irish Diamond Open Access content. Diamond Ireland is also connected to international infrastructure, including the European Diamond Capacity Hub, supporting the quality, sustainability, and visibility of Diamond Open Access publishing across Europe.
Submissions to the IJRC are accepted on a rolling basis. If you are a student, academic, practitioner, or researcher with work to share, consider submitting to the IJRC.
- Visit the journal: ijrc.ie
- Contact the editorial team: journal[at]iadt.ie
- Diamond Ireland Press: diamondirelandpress.ie
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