Independent Thinking on Publishing's Future
Introduction Discussing Donald Trump and the publishing industry is like watching a financial thriller with a side of constitutional drama. He’s been simultaneously a boon to book sales and a potential disaster for the bedrock principles that publishing stands on: free expression, open discourse, and a stable, predictable economic environment. The sheer volume of books … Read more
Introduction Open access is no longer an add-on to academic publishing. It now covers about half of new articles and around a fifth of journal revenue, so this article asks how the shift happened, how publishers have adapted, and why the real question today is how to make open access fair and sustainable. Key points … Read more
Introduction The promise of open access was a thrilling, almost utopian vision for scholarly publishing: immediate, free access to research for everyone, everywhere. It was supposed to tear down the paywalls that had turned publicly funded knowledge into a commodity accessible only to well-endowed institutions. Among the various open access models that emerged, Gold Open … Read more
Introduction The publishing world has always been a little dusty, hasn’t it? Full of weighty tomes, quiet libraries, and the almost-mystical process of turning a manuscript into something you can hold. But right now, the air is thick with the buzz of something utterly transformative: artificial intelligence. This isn’t just about a fancier spell-check app. … Read more
Introduction This article set out what we expected publishing to look like in 2026: AI built into editorial work, audio as the main growth format, more direct selling, and a shift towards open, scholar-led academic publishing. We have since added notes on what the year has shown so far, using the latest available figures. Key … Read more