EASE Summer Symposium 2026 – Session 4

What Are Journals For? Stakeholders, Mission, and Sustainability

Wednesday, 3 June 2026, 2pm-3.30pm

Journals are more than publication venues. They are communities, curators of knowledge, and often key infrastructure for scholarly communities. At the same time, the pressures of funding, publishing economics, and evaluation systems can shape how journals operate and what they prioritise.
This session brings together voices from across the scholarly publishing ecosystem to examine the different ways journals serve their communities and stakeholders. Speakers will reflect on society strategy, publishing partnerships, mission-driven university press publishing, and the challenges faced by journals that are vital to underserved communities but operate in fragile funding environments.

The discussion will explore how journals balance mission, community value, and sustainability, and how different stakeholders define success. Attendees will gain insight into the diverse roles journals play — and how those roles may need to evolve in a changing research landscape.