In the latest Publishing Tech Trends Report from Silverchair and Hum, sixteen leaders, consultants, and thinkers offered their predictions about what 2025 holds for the scholarly publishing community. Their insights reveal a unified vision for a more collaborative, efficient, and value-driven publishing ecosystem.
The Power of Collaboration and Shared Infrastructure
A prominent theme emerging from industry thought leaders is the desire for increased collaboration among organizations. As Lauren Kane of BioOne notes, "I would like to see more collaboration. Like-minded organizations coming together to collectively fund infrastructure, new development, and experimental approaches to current and future challenges."
This sentiment is echoed by Josh Dahl of Silverchair, who hopes for a "continuation of the culture of collaboration that started in the last couple years in response to research integrity issues." Christian Grubak from ChronosHub extends this further, suggesting that publishers—particularly societies—should "collaborate, recognizing that while they are competitors, they are also colleagues. By sharing challenges and working together to solve them, the industry can achieve more collectively."
Lou Peck of The International Bunch emphasizes that technology and partnerships are "not just about immediate results; they are about creating a sustainable future," citing CHORUS as an exemplary non-profit bridging gaps across the research ecosystem.
Another partnership paving the way in 2025 is Purpose-Led Publishing, a coalition of three publishers in the field of physical sciences: AIP Publishing, the American Physical Society and IOP Publishing. Together, these organizations are experimenting with a Peer Review Assistant Prototype with Hum and GroundedAI.
Standardization and Interoperability
Alistar Reece from GeoScienceWorld articulates a vision for true interoperability: "Given that journal and eBook publishing have coalesced around JATS and BITS as universal standards for XML, I would love to see us take that a step further and have an ecosystem where as a publisher, it is those JATS and BITS files that we then pass on to downstream services rather than having to manipulate the metadata into a different file format for each service."
This "single source, many outputs" approach would streamline workflows and reduce redundancy, allowing the JATS/BITS XML created by publishers to become "the only version of truth."
Transparent and Ethical Partnerships
Heather Staines of Delta Think raises important concerns about data portability and content management, highlighting "the ability to get your data out when the partnership ends, or the partner is acquired or ceases to conduct business" and "the ability to get retracted content out of the system" as crucial considerations for future partnerships.
Lori Carlin, also from Delta Think, emphasizes the need to prioritize user experience through unified solutions: "We need to continue partnering, rather than everybody building their own solutions... It doesn't benefit the user to have multiple sources or tools they have to use and aggregate results from in order to find a single solution."
Financial Sustainability and Revenue Generation
Industry leaders are calling for a shift in how we approach technology investments.
Mike Di Natale from AACR advocates for "reasonable pricing" as a priority. Meanwhile, Paul Gee of AMA/JAMA Network challenges the industry to adopt a "revenue-focus rather than efficiency," questioning "why do we keep focusing on saving publisher's money instead of making publisher's money?"
AI and Advanced Technologies: Beyond the Hype
While artificial intelligence wasn't explicitly addressed in many of the quoted responses, it remains an undercurrent in discussions about the future of publishing technology. The industry appears to be moving toward more pragmatic applications of AI that solve real problems and create tangible value, rather than implementing technology for its own sake.
AI technologies show promise for enhancing content discovery, streamlining editorial workflows, improving accessibility, and providing personalized user experiences. However, the sentiment from industry leaders suggests that these technologies must be implemented thoughtfully, with a focus on collaboration, interoperability, and revenue generation.
Building a Unified Ecosystem
The collective vision that emerges from these thought leaders is one of a more unified publishing ecosystem—where technologies and partnerships are developed with the end user in mind, where standards facilitate seamless information exchange, and where competitors recognize the value of tackling shared challenges together.
This unified approach extends to how we think about implementing emerging technologies like AI. Rather than each publisher developing proprietary solutions, there's an opportunity to collaboratively build tools that serve the broader community while still allowing for differentiation in how these tools are applied.
As we continue to move through 2025, the path forward will require balancing competition with collaboration, embracing standardization while preserving innovation, and leveraging new technologies to generate revenue rather than simply cut costs.
Publishers who seek transparent partnerships, contribute to shared infrastructure, and implement technologies that truly serve their users will be well-positioned to thrive in this evolving landscape.