About the Trends

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In 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.

What’s next?

The ecosystem of scholarly communications is complex and ever-evolving — with new approaches and technologies emerging and existing players adapting to changing circumstances. What can we expect in the next three to five years? What trends, advances and innovations will most strongly influence the course of scholarly communications? What opportunities can we harness, and what challenges can we anticipate and proactively address — together?

This is STM Trends. A visual futurecast for publishers, libraries, funding agencies, scholarly societies, researchers, academic institutions, and other stakeholders committed upholding the integrity of research. 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 is this 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.