JOINIn the scholarly publishing world, spring brings the annual return of STM Trends, a future-forward look at the entire ecosystem of scholarly communications by members of the STM Association. STM Trends captures the most impactful changes in research and publishing in a single themed image. Its aim is to:
- inspire broad thinking,
- spark conversations,
- catalyze ideas and solutions — and
- galvanize those of us working to advance trusted science together.
Access the latest Trends here
How are STM Trends created?
STM’s Trends is created annually by members from our STEC Committee and the Future Lab, a discussion forum of over 30 STM members: senior staff in innovations, technology, strategy, business development, platforms, IT. In a group discussion, participants identify key technology-driven trends that are likely to impact the STM publishing industry in the next three to five years. Our methodology is based on the Delphi-method for technology forecasting. The outcome of this is translated every year into an infographic that looks up to 5 years ahead.
Explore past STM Annual Trends
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2028 |
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The Latest from STM
STM joins international media organisations calling for copyright protections to be maintained in Australian AI policy
STM is one of 63 international media organisations from across publishing, media, music, photography and the wider creative industries that has signed a joint letter to the Australian Government expressing concern about reported proposals that could weaken copyright protections in the context of artificial intelligence. The coalition letter, coordinated by the News/Media Alliance, urges senior…
STM Frankfurt Conference 2026 – a more optimistic outlook for scholarly communication through cooperation and trust
The STM Frankfurt Conference took place this week, bringing together over 300 delegates from across the scholarly communications ecosystem to consider a rapidly changing system, where trust in research can no longer be assumed, AI agents are becoming key consumers of scholarly content, and publishers face growing pressure from rising submission volumes, geopolitical uncertainty, and…
STM and Ithaka S+R launch research project on the interface between scholarly content and AI
“The Endpoint Question” will examine how scholarly content should meet AI agents at the point of access As AI-powered research assistants and agentic systems become an increasingly important route to scholarly content, STM and Ithaka S+R today announced a new independent study, and invite publishers’ technical teams, platform providers, AI developers and open repositories to…
STM publishes recommendations to improve medical and health science data sharing policies
STM has published new voluntary recommendations as a practical aid to help publishers and journals improve the clarity of data sharing information for medical and health science researchers — a field where participant privacy, regulatory requirements, and ethical obligations make generic policy language especially difficult to apply. STM Medical Data Sharing Guidance was developed by…