A Platform Comes Apart: Part 1
Today’s post explores what happens to the scholarly content platform when AI agents become the users.
Ask the Fellows: SSP’s 2026 Annual Meeting
Today, we offer reflections on the SSP Annual Meeting from our 2026 Fellowship cohort.
Guest Post — Fixing the Leaky Metadata Pipeline: A Conversation with the Creator of Research Nexus Score
Today, guest blogger Rob Johnson speaks with the creator of Research Nexus Score, and observes that metadata quality has gone from a niche concern to a sector-wide anxiety.
Guest Post — Trust & Community Are the Moat, Infrastructure is Your Leverage: Dispatches from PurePub.AI
Today’s guest post asserts that AI infrastructure will let publishers truly leverage machines, while brand and community are what will keep them meaningful to humans.
Ask the Chefs: SSP 2026 Annual Meeting
The Chefs offer their reflections on last week’s SSP Annual Meeting.
The Rise of China’s Scholarly Publishing System Part 2: Navigating China’s Publishing Ambition — Strategic Options for International Publishers
China’s publishing ambitions create genuine competitive pressures, but they also open opportunities for collaboration and highlight challenges that neither side can address alone
The Rise of China’s Scholarly Publishing System Part 1: China’s Journal Ecosystem Is Accelerating
China is no longer simply a major contributor to global research output; it is increasingly becoming a key force shaping the future of scholarly publishing. Understanding what is actually happening, and why, is the necessary first step before considering how publishers should respond.
Guest Post — Proposed Uniform Guidance Revisions Would Eliminate Journal Subscriptions and APCs as Allowable Federal Grant Costs
New guidance from the US government on research funding makes publishing and journal subscription costs unallowable.
Guest Post — Scholarly AI Search Shortcomings and the Need for Better Metadata
AI scholarly search tools often miss important literature due to incomplete metadata. Better full-text-derived metadata could significantly improve discovery.
Beyond the Article, Beyond the APC: What We Learned from 18 Months of R&D
Today’s post shares the results of an initiative designed to answer the question: what would it actually take to build a publishing model fit for the research ecosystem we have now, rather than the one we inherited?
The User Has Changed. Has Scholarly Publishing?
For scholarly publishers, the user has changed faster than the systems designed to serve them, and the gap between the two is where most of the difficult work is happening.
Guest Post — A Friendly Debate: Where Automation Will (And Should) Land in the Research Lifecycle
Today, we feature a friendly debate on the question: which parts of the research lifecycle should be more automated, and which require more of a human touch — and why?
Why Scholarly Societies Must Compete Through Stewardship, Not Scale
Research disciplines require institutions that create cohesion, uphold standards, and provide continuity over time. Scholarly societies are uniquely positioned to serve that role credibly and durably.
Why Every Publisher Needs a Library Relations Strategy
Publishers that lack a deliberate library relations strategy are making consequential decisions without important and useful community perspectives.
Filter, Not Funnel: What Zero-click Means for Brand and Engagement
The threat of zero-click search makes organizational brand more important than ever and presents a huge opportunity.