JOINNew Draft EU Council Conclusions ratified — STM responds
Today, the Council Conclusions on high-quality, transparent, open, trustworthy, and equitable scholarly publishing were adopted by EU Ministers at the COMPET Council.
STM calls on the European Commission and EU Member States to consult with scholarly publishers of all sizes, disciplines and models and seek a constructive collaboration that will allow the publishing industry to keep delivering value and quality to the European society, economy and research community.
For decades, Europe has led the way in scientific publishing and is home to world-renowned researchers, from Nobel prize winners and discoverers of new vaccines to innovators and startups. The European scholarly publishing industry is a powerhouse – fully digital, competitive, diverse and independent. Its important position in the European economy should be further encouraged and strengthened so Europe can continue to play a leading global role.
As lawmakers seek to advance the conclusions and deliver on the aspirations set forth, scholarly publishers, including for-profit, non-profit, societies and university presses, will be fundamental stakeholders in the process. “It is essential that publishers be consulted and involved in the development of roadmaps and any other measure for these aims to be achieved,” said Caroline Sutton, CEO of STM.
For well over a decade, publishers have been investing heavily in the transition to Open Access. Hard data on the impact of this investment is available in an OA Dashboard recently released by STM. “We have worked carefully to make this transition while remaining focused on quality and integrity — hallmarks of the European academic establishment,” added Sutton.
The publishing industry continues to invest in platforms and technologies, as well as initiatives, including the STM Integrity Hub, to combat new and rising threats like paper mills. As the adopted Conclusions move to the implementation phase, efforts like these will be as essential as ever to ensure that trust and integrity in the academic record are upheld.
About STM
At STM, we support our members in their mission to advance research worldwide. Our over 140 members based in over 20 countries around the world collectively publish 66% of all journal articles and tens of thousands of monographs and reference works. In 2021, there were 2 million researchers in the EU, and articles, reviews and conference papers authored in the European Union represented 18% of global output – coming second only to China. More than 5800 journals originated in the EU in 2020, accounting for almost 25% of journals globally.
As academic and professional publishers, learned societies, university presses, startups, and established players, we work together to serve the community by advancing trusted research, and developing standards and technology to ensure research is of high quality, trustworthy and easy to access.