Jon Treadway, Director at Great North Wood Consulting, delivered the opening keynote, outlining the challenges facing scholarly communication. He highlighted the shift towards isolationism in the geopolitical landscape, impacting scientific collaboration. Treadway emphasized that scholarly communication remains inefficient and fragmented, with AI advancements posing both opportunities and risks. He cautioned that AI’s rapid progress demands vigilance and noted that Open Access has yet to reach its full potential due to siloed discussions rather than collaborative efforts. 

The first panel focused on ensuring transparency and trustworthiness in research. Panelists included Leslie McIntosh, Vice President of Research Integrity at Digital Science; Laura Wilson, Head of Research Integrity & Ethics at Taylor & Francis; Jennifer Wright, Head of Publication Ethics & Research Integrity at Cambridge University Press; and Doug Melville, Technical Product Manager at Sage. Key concerns discussed were AI’s impact on research, the need for transparent licensing conditions, and the challenge of ensuring research security. The panel emphasized that publishers play a critical role in upholding standards, holding the “gold” in narratives and research culture. Collaboration across the industry, especially in disambiguating author identities and spotting bad actors, was stressed as vital to safeguarding integrity.

Ann Campbell, Technical Solutions Manager at Digital Science, and Katie Davison, Insights Analyst at Emerald Publishing, presented a case study on how they’ve worked together to leverage Dimensions on GBQ for data-driven insights. They demonstrated how combining Emerald Publishing’s strategic goals with Dimensions’ extensive dataset allowed them to uncover valuable insights about research trends, author collaborations, and institutional impact. By harnessing these insights, Emerald was able to identify key growth areas, refine their editorial strategies, and better align their publishing efforts with the needs of the academic community.

The second panel addressed how publishers are adapting their strategies in response to evolving social media platforms. The panel included Lou Peck, CEO & Founder of The International Bunch; Jitske de Vries, Head of Marketing at The Company of Biologists; Rowena Gordon, Senior Managing Editor at the British Ecological Society; Daisy Veysey, Social Media Manager at eLife; and Marion Schnelle, Social Media Manager at De Gruyter Brill. Discussions highlighted the emergence of platforms like Mastodon and Bluesky as an alternative to X (formerly Twitter). It was raised that in a poll of 6000 readers of Nature, 70% had moved over from X to Bluesky declaring the platform nicer, kinder and less antagonistic. The panel also raised a growing emphasis on community-building strategies over traditional marketing tactics among publishers. 

Next, Sarah Greaves, Director and Publishing Consultant at Sarah Greaves STEM Consulting, discussed the ongoing trend of consolidation in the publishing industry. She explored how mergers and acquisitions are reshaping the landscape, the potential benefits of improved efficiencies, and concerns about reduced diversity and potential monopolistic behaviors. 

Our lightning talks provided valuable insights into our latest innovations for publishers. Nicholas Bailey, our Senior Product Manager, introduced Dimensions Author Check, our new research integrity tool designed to help publishers verify potential authors, editors, and reviewers. Meanwhile, Mike Taylor, Head of Data Insights, showcased the Altmetric Journal Benchmark dashboard – a powerful resource for publishers seeking to measure success, benchmark their journals against competitors, and identify growth opportunities.

In the closing keynote, Jo Wixon, Director of External Analysis at Wiley, explored how publishers can actively contribute to advancing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She emphasized the growing importance of aligning publishing practices with global sustainability efforts, showcasing strategies for integrating SDG-related content and metrics into editorial workflows, peer review processes, and publication strategies. By adopting these practices, publishers can amplify research that addresses critical global challenges while enhancing their impact within the academic community.

Our 2025 Publisher Day highlighted both the opportunities and challenges publishers face in adapting to AI advancements, strengthening research integrity, and responding to shifts in social media landscapes. With increasing consolidation and technological disruption, the industry must work collaboratively to ensure the integrity, accessibility, and credibility of scholarly communication.

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In the lead up to the London Book Fair, on Monday 11th March we held our annual Digital Science Publisher Day. Guided by the overarching theme of ‘The Road Ahead’, the in-person event provided an opportunity to explore what the future roadmap for scholarly publishing may hold. It was an action-packed day for the publishing community, with keynotes, panel discussions, and plenty of networking! 

After a welcome and introduction from Digital Science’s MD of Publisher Sales, Helen Cooke, we kicked off the day with a keynote from Mark Hanhel, our VP of Open Research. Mark shared where he predicts experimentation will lead in the ever-changing global academic publishing landscape, and what Digital Science can do to support publishers with data, tools and insights. 

Following Mark’s keynote, we had a series of lightning talks to share product updates and roadmaps for our publisher solutions. Amye Kedall, VP of Product, presented exciting updates from Dimensions and Altmetric, and explained how Digital Science is adopting AI in our product development plans to help publishers drive discovery of content and do more with less. 

Claire Turner, SVP Commercial, shared Figshare’s updated roadmap format. She explained how the Figshare team plans to expand their capabilities to support capturing engaging content, streamline researcher experiences, enhance administrative workflows, and update core capabilities.

Next up was Juan Castro, CEO and Co-Founder of Writefull, who presented on Writefull’s AI-powered language and metadata solutions for publishers, and how they have streamlined the workflow of a leading chemistry publisher. 

After a networking break, we held our first panel of the day. The panel was moderated by Cathy Holland from Digital Science, who was joined by Andreea Moldovan from Sage, Jon Treadway from Great North Wood Consulting, Becky Moakes from Maverick, and Ian Potter from Frontiers. The panel had a lively discussion on the journey of adapting to AI in scholarly publishing – weighing up the positive and negative impacts, and looking ahead to see whether AI is, or will ever be, the new normal.

The next panel (pictured below) was moderated by Tyler Ruse of Digital Science. Pooja Aggarwal from Bloomsbury, James Butcher from Journalology, Ritu Dhand from Springer Nature, and Lisa Walton from BMJ. They discussed how the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are affecting publishing and editorial strategies, how to measure success in the SDGs, the importance of the SDG Publishers Compact, and what the path to 2030 could look like. 

Following a publishing industry quiz, we had our third and final panel of the day, which was moderated by Digital Science’s Nigel Thompson. Nigel was joined by Hannah Barnsley from the Royal Society of Chemistry, Simon Boisseau from Accucoms, Bernie Folan from OASPA, and Rhodri Jackson from Oxford University Press. The panel spoke about open access trends and models, the role wider initiatives play in supporting OA, and where they think the OA movement is heading.  

As the day drew to a close, Jessica Miles from Holtzbrinck delivered a thought-provoking keynote, reflecting on the past, present, and future of STM publishing workflows. She spoke about how the workflows have been shaped by distinct periods of digital transformation: from establishing infrastructure for digital content creation in the move from print to digital, to the expansion of the publishing workflow influenced by AI and machine learning, to how AI will impact the fundamental value proposition of STM publishing going forward.

We concluded the day by enjoying some networking drinks. Once again, we’d like to send our heartfelt thanks to everyone who attended and spoke at this year’s Publisher Day, and we look forward to next year’s event.

Want to learn more about our solutions for publishers? Visit our webpage, or get in touch with the publisher team at: publishing@digital-science.com

The post Publisher Day 2024: The road ahead for scholarly publishing appeared first on Digital Science.