Safeguarding the future of society publishing - White paper

This white paper explores how learned societies are navigating the rapidly evolving scholarly communications landscape, in an era of unprecedented transformation, and the findings aim to support learned societies to navigate industry transformation through collaboration and adaptation.

Using a mixed-methods approach, the research engaged 66 society publishers through an international survey conducted between November 2024 and January 2025. The findings were then validated and supplemented through an interactive workshop in March 2025, with 40 representatives from participating societies and industry experts from STM, SSP, ALPSP, and BioOne.

The findings reveal that while nearly 80% of societies still consider publishing central to their mission, 56% report declining journal revenues since 2019. The research identifies seven critical insights for society publishers, highlighting that scale confers resilience, artificial intelligence presents both significant challenges and opportunities, and collaboration is increasingly essential for future sustainability.

The white paper concludes that society publishers hold a unique and valuable role in scholarly communication through their deep community connections and subject expertise. However, the future demands both pragmatic adaptation to changing market conditions and collaborative partnerships that maintain independence while accessing essential capabilities.

For an analysis of the complete response to all survey questions, please refer to the supplementary presentation.

This white paper was produced by Research Consulting with support from Copyright Clearance Center (CCC). The analysis, findings and recommendations represent the independent views of Research Consulting based on our research with society publishers, and do not necessarily reflect the positions of CCC, the respondent societies and any other organisations mentioned herein.