Policy and Advocacy

The Policy & Advocacy Committee (PAC) works in partnership across the research ecosystem to advocate for policies which support researchers and the quality, integrity and sustainability of scholarly communication. In dialogue with governments, funders, institutions, researchers, and others, we aim to enable and drive change, particularly in support of emerging Open Science practices, including Open Access.

While representing the publishing community in all its diversity, we speak with one voice to governments, funders and university leaders, responding to their missions while advocating for policies which accommodate both change and sustainability.  We provide evidence on the value publishers add to research and its communication, and the wider contributions the industry makes to societies and economies.

The Future of Peer Review

Two cross-sectoral expert roundtables – co-organised by ALLEA, GYA, and STM –  discussed the future of peer review in an open, digital world and will explore which models can best serve and reward the research community in both an enhanced and sustainable way.

While there is universal agreement that peer review is an essential element of the communication and documentation processes that ensure the quality and trustworthiness of modern research and scholarship, the rapid development of new digital modes of publication, and the wider range of research outputs envisaged in modern concepts of Open Science, pose challenges for the traditional models of peer review.