An Independent Publishing Industry: The Case for Checks and Balances

Data from the 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer indicates that 63% of global respondents have trouble determining credibility of information and 25% approve of intentionally spreading disinformation to drive change. Against this backdrop and current geo-political currents, there should be wide agreement within the research and scholarly communications eco-system that it is critically important to protect and strengthen sources of validated knowledge, actively build trust in those sources, and protect self-correcting knowledge systems. Key to this is recognising and continually evolving a system of checks and balances at an operational level and in the marketplace that prevent any single actor from dominating knowledge production. Framing the issue in terms of checks and balances brings attention to the fact that all actors in a system have interests and highlights the value of a diverse marketplace of publishers, including independent publishers, for building systemic legitimacy and ultimately in supporting democracy.