ACSE 2026: Rebuilding Trust in Scholarly Publishing
The 12th ACSE Annual Conference, held virtually on 15–16 August 2026, brought together 1,000+ participants and more than 30 speakers, moderators and panelists from across the scholarly publishing community for two days of discussion around one of the field’s most pressing questions: How can we rebuild trust in scholarly publishing?
Under the theme “Rebuilding Trust in Scholarly Publishing,” the conference brought together perspectives from editors, publishers, researchers, research-integrity specialists, librarians, technology experts and other stakeholders. Through RETHINK, RESTORE and REFORM, the conversation moved beyond detecting misconduct to a broader question: how can trust be built into the systems, incentives and practices that shape the scholarly record?
The conversations offered several perspectives on where that work might begin.
Trust starts before publication. Research provenance emerged as an important foundation, not only what was published, but what was done, how it was done, who contributed and whether enough information exists to understand and reproduce the work. The discussion also questioned whether the traditional article needs to evolve alongside increasingly connected data, methods, software and other research objects.
The conference challenged the use of journal prestige, Impact Factor and citation measures as proxies for research quality, asking whether current assessment systems reward the behaviours we want scholarly communication to represent. There was also a call to look beyond red flags and consider meaningful, verifiable signals that can help establish confidence in research.
In practice, trust depends on whether policies and workflows actually work. Participants highlighted the importance of knowing what is checked, how decisions are made, where responsibility sits and what happens when something goes wrong. One principle captured the balance between efficiency and integrity:
“Compress the workflow, never the scrutiny.”
Technology featured strongly in the reform conversation, particularly AI. But the key question was not simply whether AI should be used. It was who remains accountable when AI becomes part of a publishing decision. AI may support screening, discovery and integrity checks, but it should not become an unaccountable arbiter of research quality.
The discussions also broadened responsibility beyond individual journals and publishers. Research-integrity challenges cross organisational boundaries, while libraries and institutions have important roles in stewardship, research support, incentives, access and the integrity of the scholarly record.
Finally, rebuilding trust also means asking who gets to participate in scholarly publishing and whose knowledge is visible and accessible. The conference highlighted the need for stronger representation of researchers and communities across Asia, Africa and the Middle East, greater access to research across languages, and a more transparent, recognised and sustainable peer-review system.
Across RETHINK, RESTORE and REFORM, the conference did not offer a single solution. Instead, it highlighted trust as an ongoing process, one that has to be built into research and publishing systems, demonstrated through practice, and continually improved.
The conversation continues beyond ACSE 2026, with the wider scholarly community.
