Trust, Technology, And The TRIALS… Of Credibility In Scholarly Publishing

In conversation with Smita Dwivedi, Caroline Sutton, CEO of STM and a leading voice in scholarly communication and open research, shares insights into how the industry is responding to some of its biggest global challenges.

At the forefront of these conversations is the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM), one of the world’s leading organisations representing scholarly publishing. Bringing together publishers, technology providers, policymakers, and research bodies, STM is playing a crucial role in shaping discussions around research integrity, AI, open science, and the future of academic publishing.

AABP: Research integrity has become one of the biggest global concerns in scholarly publishing today. How serious is the situation right now?

Caroline: It is a very serious issue, and what is particularly striking is how rapidly the landscape has changed over the past few years. If you speak with people working in research integrity teams within publishing houses today, you quickly realise that publishers are no longer only dealing with occasional cases of plagiarism or isolated ethical breaches. The scale and sophistication of misconduct have increased significantly.

We are now seeing fake reviewer identities, manipulated peer review systems, fabricated datasets, image manipulation, citation manipulation, and increasingly AI-assisted misconduct. These activities are often coordinated across multiple publishers and journals simultaneously.

What makes this especially challenging is that scholarly publishing has traditionally been built on systems of trust. The peer-review process assumes honesty and transparency from researchers. But today, publishers are being forced to strengthen verification systems in ways that were not previously necessary.

AABP: In such a competitive industry, how are publishers collaborating on these issues?

Caroline: That is actually one of the most fascinating developments in scholarly publishing right now. Although publishers compete commercially, they increasingly recognise that integrity challenges are too large and too interconnected to solve independently. Fraudsters do not target just one publisher. They move across the entire ecosystem.

This is where STM plays a very important role. Today, STM functions both as a traditional trade association and also leads on collaborative infrastructure for the scholarly communication industry. Our members include commercial publishers, university presses, learned societies, and technology providers from across the world. Together, they collaborate on what we often describe as “Pre-competitive issues”, areas where collective action benefits the entire ecosystem.

One major example is the STM Integrity Hub. This initiative enables publishers to share insights about research integrity issues, and work together to operationalise those insights into technology that alerts publishers to suspicious submissions , paper mills, and coordinated fraud patterns.

The logic is very simple: Without collaboration and shared infrastructure, publishers would all be trying to solve identical problems separately, which is neither efficient nor effective.

AABP: AI has entered every sector globally. How is it transforming scholarly publishing specifically?

Caroline: AI is reshaping scholarly publishing in multiple ways simultaneously. Some of those changes are very promising, while others are deeply concerning. On the positive side, AI can improve discoverability, support accessibility, assist with language editing, enhance workflow efficiencies, and help publishers identify integrity risks more effectively. It can also support researchers in analysing large volumes of scientific information much faster than before.

But alongside these opportunities come major concerns. Questions around authorship, accountability, copyright, transparency, and the use of publisher content for training large language models are becoming increasingly important. Publishers are also grappling with how AI-generated content should be disclosed and evaluated.

One important thing to understand about scholarly communication is that science is not simply about providing answers. It is about showing the evidence, methodology, and process behind those answers. Verification and traceability are central to research credibility. If AI systems generate or alter research outputs without transparency, that can fundamentally affect trust in scientific communication.

At STM, we are therefore deeply engaged in conversations around AI governance, ethical frameworks, text and data mining policies, licensing systems, and industry standards for responsible AI use.

AABP: Open access publishing has transformed scholarly communication over the last decade. Where does the movement stand today?

Caroline: Open access has fundamentally changed scholarly publishing, and it is now central to global research communication. The idea that publicly funded research should be widely accessible has gained enormous momentum across governments, funders, and institutions worldwide. Today, many funding bodies require research outputs to be openly accessible. But the transition is complex because the scholarly ecosystem involves many stakeholders — publishers, researchers, universities, libraries, governments, and funding agencies — all with different priorities and economic realities.

Open science must remain grounded in trust and integrity.

AABP: Many readers outside academic publishing may not fully understand how much invisible work goes into scholarly communication.

Caroline: That is very true. When people read a published research article, they often only see the final output. But behind that article is a very complex infrastructure. There are editorial systems, peer review processes, plagiarism checks, metadata standards, archiving systems, licensing frameworks, persistent identifiers, indexing structures, and increasingly integrity monitoring systems.

Organisations like Crossref and ORCID, for example, play critical roles in ensuring discoverability and researcher identification across the global ecosystem. One of the challenges today is helping wider audiences including policymakers and the public understand that trusted scholarly publishing depends on all these interconnected systems working effectively together.

Publishers are not simply distributing information. They are maintaining knowledge infrastructures.

AABP: STM also works extensively with organisations outside publishing. Why are these partnerships becoming increasingly important?

Caroline: Because no single organisation can solve today’s challenges independently. Scholarly communication now involves collaboration across publishers, technology companies, ethics organisations, universities, funders, libraries, infrastructure providers, and governments.

STM collaborates with organisations such as Crossref, ORCID, the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), technology partners, and policy bodies to improve interoperability, discoverability, metadata standards, transparency, and integrity systems. Research today is global, digital, and interconnected. That means the systems supporting research communication must also be collaborative and interoperable.

AABP: How do you see the future of scholarly publishing evolving over the next few years?

Caroline: I think we are entering a period of significant transformation, but also tremendous opportunity. AI will continue to reshape workflows and discovery systems. Open science will expand further. Integrity systems will become more sophisticated and more collaborative. Infrastructure and interoperability will become even more important.

But despite all the technological changes, the core mission of scholarly publishing will remain the same — advancing trusted knowledge for society.What gives me hope is the growing willingness across the industry to collaborate. Publishers increasingly recognise that challenges around AI, integrity, accessibility, and trust are shared global concerns. And when industries collaborate meaningfully, they become far more resilient.

On a concluding note…Call for more Participation from Indian Publishers

Caroline Sutton’s insights highlight that the future of academic publishing will depend not only on technology and innovation, but also on trust, transparency, and shared responsibility.

At the same time, there is a growing need for stronger participation from Indian publishers in international platforms like STM. As India continues to emerge as a significant research and academic hub, greater global engagement can help Indian publishers contribute more actively to conversations around research integrity, interoperability, policy frameworks, and the future of scholarly communication worldwide.

Caroline Sutton is the CEO of the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM), the leading global association representing scholarly and academic publishers. STM’s members include major commercial publishers, university presses, learned societies, and technology providers involved in scientific and academic communication worldwide.

Before joining STM, Sutton served as Director of Open Research at Taylor & Francis. She also co-founded Co-Action Publishing, one of the early pioneers in open-access publishing, and was among the founders and first President of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA).

Over the years, she has served on several influential boards within the scholarly communications ecosystem, including Dryad and IS4OA, the managing organisation behind the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). She holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Uppsala, Sweden.

Under her leadership, STM has increasingly focused on research integrity, AI governance, open science, interoperability, and policy advocacy — areas that are rapidly shaping the future of global scholarly publishing.