Diamond Open Access in the United Arab Emirates (UAE): Awareness, perceptions, and institutional readiness for equitable scholarly publishing

Diamond Open Access (OA) provides a non-commercial and equity-oriented alternative to fee-based scholarly publishing, yet empirical evidence on stakeholder awareness and institutional readiness in the Gulf region remains limited. This study examined awareness, perceived benefits, institutional readiness, implementation challenges, and equity-related perceptions of Diamond OA among librarians and faculty members in public and private universities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). A quantitative cross-sectional survey design was employed, with a convenience sample yielding 101 valid responses. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, internal-consistency reliability analysis, EFA, Mann–Whitney U tests, Spearman’s rank-order correlations, and multiple linear regression. Respondents expressed strong support for the equity-oriented principles of Diamond OA, particularly geo-linguistic equity ( M = 3.82) and ethical and justice considerations ( M = 3.78). However, institutional readiness ( M = 3.23) and awareness ( M = 3.33) were comparatively lower, indicating that normative support exceeded perceived institutional preparedness. Awareness and perceived benefits were positively associated with institutional readiness and emerged as significant independent predictors, with the full model explaining 56.3% of the variance in readiness ( R 2 = 0.563, F (5, 95) = 24.52, p < 0.001). Equity, ethical, and geo-linguistic perceptions were highly intercorrelated, suggesting an overarching values-and-equity orientation rather than clearly differentiated empirical dimensions. Private-university respondents reported significantly greater implementation challenges than their public-university counterparts, whereas no significant differences were observed by professional role or gender. The findings indicate broad stakeholder support for Diamond OA principles in the UAE, but comparatively limited awareness and institutional preparedness. Strengthening awareness and training should therefore be accompanied by structural measures, including dedicated funding, multilingual publishing infrastructure, recognition of editorial labor, and integration of Diamond OA into research assessment and promotion systems. The study provides exploratory stakeholder-based evidence to inform Diamond OA policy and capacity-building in the UAE and the wider Gulf Cooperation Council region.