Shaping Our Collective Voice Through Advocacy — SSP Pulse Check Report - The Scholarly Kitchen

"Scholarly communications faces a complex landscape as policy, technology, and public expectations reshape how research is created, communicated, and trusted. This report examines how organizations across the scholarly communications ecosystem view advocacy, align on industry priorities, and address the challenges of engaging with policymakers and the public....

Key Findings

• Across the community, there is a clear consensus that coordinated engagement is most critical where policy decisions shape the research and publishing environment.
• Research integrity, funding and infrastructure, sustainable business models, and the ethical use of AI form a tightly connected core of concerns, reflecting both long-standing pressures and rapidly evolving risks.
• Participation in coalitions, policy monitoring, and direct engagement is widespread, indicating that advocacy is active across the ecosystem, even if approaches differ.
• A lack of staff time and resources far outweighs all other constraints, suggesting that organizations are motivated but need more scalable ways to participate.
• Organizations are asking for centralized data, practical toolkits, and coordinated campaigns — resources that reduce duplication and enable more consistent, collective action."