N8 Statement on Sustainable Scholarly Publishing
The N8 is calling for urgent reform of scholarly publishing models and our members commit to collaborating to drive efficiency and deliver value for money
In June 2025, the N8 released a landmark new statement urging fundamental reform in the way scholarly research is published. The Statement comes amid on-going concerns over the financial sustainability, equity, and transparency of the current publishing system.
The Statement, which was developed collaboratively by senior leaders across the N8 universities – including Library directors, Pro-Vice-Chancellors for Research, and Vice-Chancellors – calls on publishers to shift away from operating in a manner that no longer serves the interests of academic communities and offer limited innovation in how research is disseminated.
As the N8 Research Partnership we will work collectively to encourage publishers to move towards fairly and transparently priced, open access, academically rigorous and value-added publishing platforms and services.
The Statement also makes the case for a stronger role for mission-driven scholarly societies and non-profit publishers who are already leading the way in developing new, more equitable models.
The N8 universities have committed to collaborating in a number of areas to drive efficiency and deliver value for money in the scholarly publishing model, which are outlined in the Statement.
The N8’s intervention on scholarly publishing builds upon its Rights Retention Statement of 2023, which strongly recommended that researchers do not by default transfer intellectual property rights to publishers and use a Rights Retention statement as standard practice.
The Sustainable Scholarly Publishing Statement and an infographic can be downloaded from the links at the bottom of this page.
Professor Charlie Jeffery, Chair of the N8 Research Partnership, said:
“For too long, we’ve seen the consolidation of scholarly publishing into the hands of a few major commercial players whose priorities are increasingly divorced from the academic communities they were meant to serve.
“Our researchers are delivering work that will help improve the world around us. They then review and edit this work – often without compensation – and yet institutions are charged both to publish and to access this knowledge. The balance has tipped too far, and we hope this statement represents a first step towards the N8 working with publishers to develop a different approach that will benefit all parties.”
Launch event
The N8 Statement on Sustainable Scholarly Publishing was officially launched at an event hosted by the University of York on 12th June 2025.
The event, titled ‘Pathways to sustainable scholarly publishing’, brought together senior leaders, librarians and researchers from across the N8, along with key representatives from across the scholarly publishing and research funding sectors and others to discuss the current landscape and future directions.
A full recap of the event is available here: https://www.n8research.org.uk/pathways-to-scholarly-publishing-an-event-to-mark-the-launch-of-the-n8-statement-on-sustainable-scholarly-publishing
University leaders from across the N8 have been speaking about the importance of Sustainable Scholarly Publishing
Sustainable Scholarly Publishing Resources
N8 Statement on Sustainable Scholarly Publishing
- File name:
- N8-Statement-on-Sustainable-Scholarly-Publishing.pdf
- File size:
- 149.55 KB
N8 Sustainable Scholarly Publishing Infographic
- File name:
- N8-Scholarly-Publishing-Infographic-Final.pdf
- File size:
- 535.01 KB