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Open Research Specialist Liz Kavanagh-Warnock reflects on the recent UKSG conference and how infrastructure, funding pressures, and community are shaping the future of Open Research.

(United Kingdom Serials Group) is an international association of scholarly and academic publishers, libraries and tech companies, which hosts an annual conference every year that regularly attracts over 900 delegates. This year I was one of them, travelling to Glasgow for the first time to represent the Library and the Office for Open Research, and to learn more about how the sector is responding to challenges, developing new policies and technologies, and shaping the future of research accessibility and discoverability.

Trust: in research, institutions and infrastructure

A theme that repeated across various sessions was the importance of trust in the sector, and how a lack of trust in the infrastructure and institutions who facilitate and publish research can potentially undermine trust in the research itself. Sessions on peer review, retractions, and ORCID all reinforced the idea that infrastructure is not neutral background work - it can easily affect how research is assessed, discovered and trusted. I especially enjoyed the session ‘’ by Ben Rawlins of the University of Kentucky Libraries, which resulted in an insightful discussion on what publishers ought to do when a Gold Open Access article is retracted, with an estimated $41 million worth of APCs paid for retracted research!

Where do we go when we’re being pulled in multiple directions?

Given the timing of the UKSG conference, it was no surprise that there was much discussion on the outcome of the , which had recently been completed following extensive negotiations with Jisc. Whilst there was significant and vocal appreciation for all the hard work put into the negotiations, especially by the Jisc data analysts and licensing managers, there was also explicit acknowledgement of the challenges the sector faces. Libraries face a difficult situation given the current funding climate in higher education, with affordability becoming a more significant factor for some institutions than other priorities, such as author choice and sustainability. This tension is one we encounter often both nationally and in our day-to-day work.

Fostering a feeling of community

It’s important to point out that although the topics of discussion are often serious and occasionally heavy, the general mood of the UKSG conference is always very positive and collegiate. It’s easy to feel siloed within our organisations or institutions, or as though we’re battling alone, so UKSG’s celebration of collaboration and community is important, especially for those early in their careers or working in smaller institutions (there were even some solo librarians present!). Meeting new people, as well as catching up with former colleagues, to share wins and losses, experiences and lessons, or just complain about how many metadata records you have to make, is an important and joyful part of the UKSG schedule.

I recommend attending UKSG next year if you can - it's a great conference to build connections, learn practical lessons, and contribute to the future of Open Research.

More information

• are available to browse.
• The call for speakers and topics for UKSG conference 2027 is , closing 17 July.
• Our guidance on the ‘Big 5’ as well as our other publisher agreements is available via our . 

Elizabeth Kavanagh-Warnock, Open Research Specialist: Open Access