Standards & technology

Collective innovation and standardization to advance open, trusted research.

Standards & Technology are central to all that STM does. Our work here convenes STM members of all shapes and sizes to pool ideas, resources, experience, and innovations to advance open, trusted research — together. This is how STM accelerates positive change.

The way we see it

Collectively, we identify issues that affect us and the research communities that we serve today, and forecast problems that potentially lie ahead. We brainstorm solutions and develop ideas into standards or technology concepts.  We build prototypes, run pilots, and work with partners — particularly with STM Solutions — where appropriate. We organize learning events, track critical standards and technology developments in the wider publishing industry, provide input for standardization efforts and consultations, track the publishing participation in various standards bodies and alert members and the STM Board on important developments. We zero in on topics that are at the heart of STM’s strategy including topics in Research Integrity, Open Research, and Social Responsibility – for example solutions to increase the visibility and consistency of retraction information, standard mechanisms to express rights reserved and license information for text & data mining purposes, and guidance for authors to declare the use of AI in a consistent and clear manner.  

Quick access

WHAT'S AHEAD?

EXPLORE STM TRENDS 2029: STM'S FUTURECAST

ACCESS THE TRENDS

Meet the committee

STM’s Standards & Technology efforts are guided by the Standard & Technology Committee (STeC) that works to guide the priorities, create task & finish groups to carry out specific projects, and lend expertise and services to all committees across the association.

  • Rachel Bock, Wiley
  • Stacey Burke, American Physiological Society
  • Scott Dineen, Optica Publishing Group
  • Nisha Doshi, Cambridge UP
  • Samantha Green, Silverchair
  • Andrew Kelly, Taylor & Francis
  • Anna Rabitti, Frontiers
  • Joshua Routh, Highwire
  • Henning Schoenenberger, Springer Nature
  • Adam Sewell, IOP Publishing
  • Brian Sieger, IEEE
  • Myles Slater, Emerald Publishing
  • Andrew Smeall, Sage Publications
  • Heather Staines, DeltaThink
  • Mark Wilmshurst, Elsevier
  • Aaron Wood, American Psychological Association
  • Ralph Youngen, American Chemical Society (Chair)

Core Initiatives

Responsible use of research content in GenAI tools

STM has established a Task & Finish Group to investigate how to establish and advocate for responsible use of research content in GenAI tools. The Task & Finish Group for “Responsible use of research content in GenAI tools” will open the conversation on how scholarly values and standards could be respected when using research content in and by GenAI systems and applications. 

LEARN MORE

Content-update Signaling and Alerting Protocol

CUSAP enhances transparency and integrity in scholarly records, notifying platforms of updates to published works for responsible dissemination.

LEARN MORE

Researcher Identity

Examining publisher methods for verifying identities of authors, reviewers, and editors to strengthen research integrity through a unified framework.

 

LEARN MORE

Article 4 Implementation

Task & Finish Group (TFG) on implementation of Article 4 of the 2019 EU Directive for Copyright in the Digital Single Market (DSM).

LEARN MORE

The STM Future Lab

The Standards & Technology Future Lab is a platform for a wider STM Community to share input and insights to help us advance trusted research. Our Lab is composed of a diverse membership of inspired individuals, appointed by their own organisations, who are eager to help envision future strategies to drive our mission forward.

LEARN MORE

Alt-Text Accessibility

The Alt-Text Accessibility Task & Finish Group (TFG) aims to deliver best-practice recommendations for the creation of alt-texts for scholarly images, to help to enable publishers to in making their content accessible to users with disabilities, and in meeting the W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA standards.

LEARN MORE

The Latest from STM

STM publishes new discussion document on responsible use of research content in generative AI

*AI *Announcements *Research Integrity *Standards and Technology 03/18/26

STM has published “Toward Responsible Use of Research Content in Generative AI,” a discussion document putting forward considerations for the responsible use of research content in generative AI tools, and inviting the broader research and GenAI development community to engage. The document focuses on what makes research content and research communication distinct from other types…

LEARN MORE

In the media | The Scholarly Kitchen: “Call for Feedback: STM Task & Finish Group (TFG) Image-type Taxonomy for Alt Text”

*In the media *Social Responsibility *Standards and Technology 01/30/26

“The STM Association Alt Text Task & Finish Group (TFG) is excited to share its draft image-type taxonomy for scholarly images for comment and feedback. This taxonomy is a collaborative effort by members of the STM Association to develop a comprehensive classification system for images in scholarly publishing. In part, it is intended to assist authors…

LEARN MORE

Global reporting standard for AI disclosure in research: first consultation is open

*AI *Announcements *Research Integrity *Standards and Technology 01/27/26

Transparency about the use of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) in research articles and other scholarly outputs is an important aspect of research integrity. At present, practices for  how  to disclose AI use vary widely across disciplines, regions, and publication cultures.  To address this issue, STM has released a report “Recommendations for a Classification of AI…

LEARN MORE

Making scholarly images more accessible: STM’s draft taxonomy (consultation period closed)

*Announcements *Standards and Technology 01/21/26

The STM Alt Text Task & Finish Group (TFG) has released a draft image-type taxonomy for scholarly images. This draft is the result of a collaborative effort by STM members to support accessible publishing, with a focus on helping authors and publishers write better image descriptions (alt text). Not only does it help prepare for…

LEARN MORE
VIEW ALL NEWS