A very interesting read! From the perspective of a publisher, this Cambridge University Press report offers a snapshot of the current state and future challenges of academic publishing. It is based on a large international survey of over 3,000 participants from around 120 countries, including researchers, librarians, funders, publishers, and scholarly societies.
The report highlights four major structural weaknesses in academic publishing:
- Rapidly increasing publication volume
- Fragile economic model
- Persistent and growing inequalities
- Academic recognition focused too heavily on quantity
To address these challenges, the report calls for collective reform of the research publishing system:
- Redefine evaluation criteria to prioritize quality over quantity, and recognize diverse outputs such as monographs, datasets, peer review contributions, not just articles.
- Adopt more equitable open access models, including diamond open access (no fees for readers or authors) or other transparent approaches to reduce North/South inequalities.
- Reform peer review to acknowledge reviewing as legitimate academic work, provide better training and support for reviewers, and distribute workloads more fairly.
- Encourage diverse publication formats beyond traditional articles — monographs, preprints, community platforms — to meet varied needs and reduce pressure on journals.
- Promote transparency in publishing costs so that open access becomes sustainable for institutions.
Overall, the report paints a clear picture of the pressures and inequities in today’s system, and makes a strong case for collective action to ensure academic publishing remains fair, high-quality, and sustainable.
Read the report:
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-file-manager/file/68ef9df9a6c3702e57eae12a/Cambridge-University-Press-Publishing-futures.pdf
Or watch it! (dubbed and subtitled versions available)
