Annual Reviews have been on a steady growth trajectory these last few years, starting with the acquisition of The Charleston Advisor in 2022, the Charleston Hub and Against the Grain in 2023, then Knowledge Unlatched in 2025, and now Underline Science, a research community and conference platform. Founded nearly 100 years ago at Stanford University, Annual Reviews is a unique player with growing market share in our community, bringing non-profit and mission-driven strategies to the consolidation trend in scholarly publishing.

In an era of intelligent automation, it’s heartening to see Annual Reviews’ investment in scholarly events that bring people together. This investment in direct human contact is a trend I noticed in presentations throughout the SSP Annual Meeting this summer, which brings me hope in this chaotic time. This news holds promise for the integration of journals, magazines, and now conferences. I’ll be curious to see how Underline, as the newest member of the Annual Reviews (AR) family, changes things for both companies.

Recently, we sat down with Richard Gallagher from Annual Reviews to learn more about their recent acquisition of Underline Science, a scholarly conference and event platform.

What is Underline Science?

Underline Science (Underline) is a technology and event services company focused on scholarly conferences and building academic communities. It supports virtual, hybrid, and in-person meetings as they happen, and captures, preserves, and shares the resulting content so it remains part of the scholarly record.

It combines hands-on conference services with a purpose-built digital platform for hosting presentations, videos, posters, and related materials. Its aim is one we share: ensuring that valuable research presented at conferences stays accessible and usable long after the event has ended.

Does this acquisition signal a strategic shift by Annual Reviews? Is it a diversification move?

It’s not so much a strategic shift as the next step in a long-term strategy. Annual Reviews’ mission is to synthesize and integrate knowledge for the progress of science and the benefit of society. Over time, we have developed a portfolio of activities that contribute to that mission in complementary ways.

The review journals, our flagship, help researchers navigate rapidly expanding fields of knowledge and have been free to read and free to publish under Subscribe to Open since 2023. Across the 51 areas that the journals cover, we have a unique connection to the global research community.

Knowable Magazine and Knowable en Español use award-winning journalism to bring research to broader public audiences, again free to read and free to republish. The Charleston Conference and Katina Magazine convene and inform discussions about the central role of libraries in shaping a fair, sustainable, and effective knowledge economy, bringing together librarians, publishers, and technology providers to address shared challenges and opportunities. Knowledge Unlatched harnesses librarian leadership for collective action in opening access to high-quality scholarship.

Underline adds a further dimension: the creation, preservation, and integration of conferences and events into the scholarly record. It provides full-service support for those gatherings and makes their outputs more discoverable and accessible.

We believe it can help scholarly societies create more impactful and cost-effective events, contributing directly to research progress and strengthening the communities that sustain it.

It also presents an opportunity to convene researchers, policymakers, and practitioners around specific societal challenges, creating forums in which evidence can inform action. Contributing to the broader application of research knowledge has long been an aspiration of Annual Reviews, and Underline provides a platform for advancing that ambition.

How does this differ from, or align with, AR’s acquisition of Knowledge Unlatched?

The specific contributions differ, but both acquisitions expand our ability to deliver equitable, high-quality services to researchers, librarians, students, and the wider community.

Another similarity is that both organizations are based in Europe. A year ago, we were almost entirely US-based. We continue to have a strong base in California, but research is a global enterprise, and we’re enjoying the process of becoming a more international organization that better reflects that.

Was Underline looking for a parent company, or did AR’s approach come as a surprise?

Underline was ready for the next phase of its development and was exploring several options. What stood out was the strength of the fit with Annual Reviews. We share a commitment to serving scholarly communities, and there was a natural alignment of values, culture, and ambition. Both organizations saw an opportunity to have a greater impact together than either could achieve alone.

Are there plans to integrate Underline content with AR, or with Knowledge Unlatched?

Yes, we see significant opportunities for integration and, more importantly, for de-siloing knowledge. Conference presentations, reviews, magazine articles, books and book chapters, and other forms of scholarship can all contribute to a richer understanding of important topics. Over time, we would like to develop thematic hubs that bring together relevant content from across the Annual Reviews portfolio (and possibly other sources), providing a more integrated view of a field or societal challenge.

These plans are still at an early stage, so we do not want to be overly prescriptive about specific integrations. But we certainly see opportunities to connect content across formats and disciplines in ways that increase its collective value to researchers, libraries, scholarly communities, and those applying research knowledge in the wider world.

Given the risk of US federal funding drying up for researchers’ conference costs, investing in an events company seems risky. Is AR worried about this declining funding stream?

It would certainly be a concern, first and foremost for the health of the research enterprise, but also for Underline, if federal support for conference participation declined significantly. That said, Underline serves a global market. The United States is an important part of its business, but so are Europe and other regions of the world. Research is an international endeavor, and the demand for scholarly exchange is not confined to any single country or funding source.

Over the long term, we believe conferences will remain integral to research progress. Researchers need opportunities to learn from one another, build communities, and turn ideas into new discoveries. Reduced funding for conference attendance would add another challenge to our plate, but challenges often spur innovation, whether in funding models, conference formats, or partnerships. The underlying value proposition of conferences remains compelling.