Manchester, which ALPSP has adopted for its annual conference, is famously known for having prodigious rainfall – and right on cue, the heavens opened midway through the event. But the rain has come as a welcome relief for many who have suffered the hottest summer on record in the UK. It is with this backdrop that the UN Sustainable Development Goals has risen back up the agenda for publishers, somewhat ironically as we hurtle towards the 2030 end date with very few, if any, of the goals likely to be met.
The SDGs have maintained a high profile with publishers since their adoption over a decade ago, for the good reason that they acted as a signal for those key areas where funding was likely to be focused. This has enabled publishers to almost see into the future to understand where APCs might appear, effectively directing publisher strategies to maximize revenues. But with the end of the SDGs nigh, can publishers use the platform they have established to help them negotiate an uncertain future?
Change is good
The likelihood of any of the Sustainable Development Goals being met is sadly quite low – and even the UN admits this. In their SDG update published in July, it said that of the 139 individual targets with trend data that make up the SDGs, only about a third are on track or making even moderate progress, with about a half advancing too slowly and fully 15% have actually gone backwards since their adoption in 2015.
But all is not lost, with publishers seemingly doubling down on using the SDGs into the future. Why? Well firstly, rumor has it that the UN will not replace the SDGs but extend them with a few tweaks to focus on those areas where most impact is needed, with details likely to emerge in the next few months. Secondly, as voiced by the panel in the Publishing and the SDGs session at the ALPSP conference, there is a vital “need to link disruption in scholarly publishing with practical SDG integration”.
Finally, publishers have now embedded the SDGs into their missions and values, as well as adopting frameworks as part of their workflows. In the dedicated session, representatives from CABI, Springer Nature, The IET and Liverpool University Press all presented highly evolved, detailed programs they had developed that were wholly aligned with their other publishing activites. Quite frankly, publishers are actually quite sincere about translating the research they publish into greater impact, and that will persist through 2030 and beyond.
Wider implications
Much of the rest of the conference inevitably focused on AI and various disruptions being caused by its rapid development, from being swamped by articles filled with AI slop to publishers being disintermediated by AI summaries. Despite these challenges, many publishers reported that there were clear opportunities to build relationships with think tanks, NGOs, widen geographic representation while valuing regional impact, and develop research and policy communities.
Strengthening links to policymakers and funders has been the focus of the SDG Publishers Compact Fellows in recent times, alongside producing lists of Top Action Tips for a variety of stakeholders and a rubric for evaluating SDG coverage. An important feature of the Fellows’ work has been the strong collaboration exhibited by all the publishing representatives who take part. This collaborative spirit has enabled the work the Fellows do, and was the key identified by numerous speakers at ALPSP as to how publishers can deal with the challenges before them. Collaboration, community, credibility, collective action – all backed up by trust. It could be the way forward despite the storms heading our way.