KGL Accucoms End-of-Year Round-Up 2025: Insights from our Regional Teams

As 2025 draws to a close, we asked our teams around the world to reflect on the themes, challenges, and opportunities shaping their conversations with libraries this year. Here is a region-by-region look at what has shaped our discussions, and what these trends might mean for the year ahead.

UK and Scandinavia: Open Access maturity, budgets under strain

“Libraries want simplicity, transparency and a model that genuinely reduces admin.”

OA, especially Read & Publish, is now well established in the UK, with Scandinavia moving in the same direction. Libraries emphasise barrier-free publishing for authors while ensuring institutions retain the read access they need. Fully OA models, including unlimited publishing agreements with fully OA publishers, continue to gain momentum, with fees often based on historical publishing patterns, a level of predictability libraries value.

Across both regions, simplicity remains a core expectation: clear pricing, a single invoice, low administrative overhead, and (in the UK) alignment with JISC tiering. Librarians consistently prefer structured OA deals over individual APCs, which often fall to faculty budgets and are harder to support.

Budget pressure continues to shape decision-making, but overall commitment to OA remains strong. One-off purchases such as archives and eBooks also remain resilient.

Alongside OA conversations, UK librarians in particular are increasingly focused on responsible AI development and how publishers can support researchers with transparent, trustworthy tools.

North America: R&P becomes the norm with researcher support at the heart

2025 marks a clear shift in North America – Read & Publish has become more popular across the region. Libraries understand the model, recognise its value, and increasingly view it as the most practical way to support their researchers. Transformative deals are now widely accepted, and we have seen momentum steadily growing with publishers seeing real success in signing agreements.

“The question we hear most often is: how will this help our faculty?”

Librarians consistently frame OA discussions around researcher impact:

• Does the model support their publishing needs?

• Does it simplify access?

• Does it reduce individual APC burden?

They are also increasingly aware of, and interested in, how OA is progressing in other parts of the world and want to learn from the experiences of their colleagues across the globe.

Relationships remain essential and a warm, clear, consistent approach continues to matter:

• Transparent communication

• Thoughtful follow-up

• Partners who can interpret the global picture

Italy: A year defined by AI, ethics, and integrity

AI dominated library conversations in Italy during 2025. Librarians are eager to understand both the opportunities and risks, and they are looking to publishers for leadership, clarity, and training.

“AI is no longer an emerging topic – it is an urgent one.”

Specifically:

• How AI is being embedded into databases and platforms

• Risks related to plagiarism, paper mills, and fraudulent content

• Ethical considerations around using generative AI for manuscript development

• The publisher’s role in ensuring research integrity

• AI tools to support systematic reviews

• The need for AI literacy within health and biomedical libraries

Workshops throughout the year showed strong appetite for guidance, frameworks, and reassurance as libraries prepare to support their researchers responsibly.

LATAM: Budget pressure meets growing OA ambition

LATAM is one of the most diverse and dynamic regions we work with and 2025 highlighted both the momentum toward OA and the structural challenges that make adoption complex. Conventional subscriptions perform well and remain essential but new sales are harder without OA options on the table. Flexibility is key if publishers are to succeed in this market.

“Interest in OA keeps increasing, but budgets often tell a different story.”

Libraries are facing budgetary constraints including budget cuts or freezes and high taxes on digital subscriptions (Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Peru). These pressures affect both renewals and the ability to add new resources.

There is also uncertainty around S2O as it remains poorly understood:

• Different publisher implementations cause confusion

• Libraries need clearer explanations of institution-specific benefits

• “Support the model for the good of the community” is not a strong selling point locally

Whilst there is strong interest in OA Agreements, there are practical and budgetary considerations:

• Read and Publish is the preferred OA model, with growing interest from both institutions and consortia.

• Pure OA publishing agreements are challenging due to lack of centralised funding.

• Renewal fees that increase based on publishing volume often exceed what institutions can support.

In this region, librarians want communication, flexibility and transparency from publishers including clear communication in local language, flexibility in pricing and payment schedules, support for researchers—especially early-career authors—and transparent reporting (ideally real-time dashboards) for OA publications.

Japan: Gradual OA growth, budget pressure, and rising AI concerns

OA adoption continues to grow, led by research-intensive universities embracing Read & Publish for its predictability and measurable value. Smaller institutions benefit less but still favour R&P over S2O.

The launch of the OASE consortium marks an early step toward more coordinated national decision-making.

Severe budget pressure remains the strongest factor in negotiations. Libraries prioritise:

• Stable and predictable costs

• Clear APC-offset value

• Straightforward workflows

Concerns around generative AI, research integrity, and paper mills have become central to discussions, with libraries scrutinising transparency in publisher-provided AI tools.

MENA & Turkey: OA expansion and early-stage AI discussions

Across MENA and Turkey, Open Access uptake has accelerated in the last 2–3 years, particularly among larger research institutions. Discussions remain closely tied to budgets, training needs, and the value OA models can offer to authors. AI is a growing topic but remains at an early stage, with librarians seeking foundational understanding and clarity on how publishers are integrating AI into discovery tools.

OA trends and adoption

• Growing interest in OA deals, especially R&P and APC-based models

• Adoption closely linked to institutional research output

• Libraries often request discounts and flexible pricing

AI conversations

• Still early-stage across the region

• Focused mainly on basic generative AI concepts (e.g., ChatGPT-level use cases)

• Interest in how publishers are embedding AI within platforms, with emphasis on reliability and responsible implementation

India: Expanding access, deepening engagement, and growing OA readiness

India’s priorities in 2025 centred on broad access, technology adaptability, and maximising user engagement. Several themes consistently appeared in library conversations:

Access and technology

• Strong focus on giving end users wider access to digital resources

• Libraries actively explore technology that maximises resource value, with high interest in practical, scalable implementation strategies

ONOS and national-level developments

• The evolving One Nation, One Subscription (ONOS) initiative is shaping planning

• Institutions are evaluating how ONOS may expand available content and strengthen research support through national deals

Budgets, usage, and engagement

• Budgets remain tight, making renewal decisions highly data-driven

• Usage is the key indicator for management and a major factor in renewal

• Growing collections mean user engagement is more important than ever to demonstrate value

Open Access discussions

• OA, S2O, and transformative agreements are now mainstream topics

• Several R&P and transformative deals were signed in 2024/25

• Institutions show readiness to invest when models clearly support researchers

• Libraries increasingly seek models that maximise reach, adaptability, and researcher benefit

Looking ahead, understanding of R&P, OA, S2O, and transformative models is growing. Adoption is expected to continue increasing as familiarity improves, with momentum driven by a desire for models that enhance visibility, flexibility, and impact.

SEA, ANZ, Hong Kong & Taiwan: Cautious OA adoption and demand for flexibility

Budget constraints dominate the region. OA adoption varies:

• ANZ & Hong Kong: Strong interest and active OA pilots

• SEA & Taiwan: Subscription access remains the priority due to lower publishing output

S2O is attracting interest but remains exploratory. Libraries consistently request flexible pricing, locally relevant offers, and clear value for supporting OA. Usage and discoverability remain key priorities.

China: Localisation, competition, and OA disruption

China’s academic market in 2025 was shaped by competing pressures: rising demand for sophisticated research infrastructure alongside intensifying budget constraints and a policy-driven shift toward domestic solutions.

Universities continued to raise their expectations for platforms that support diverse data types and application scenarios across teaching, research, and administration. This demand sustains market growth, but increasingly it’s being met by local providers.

The “Xin Chuang” initiative—Innovation in Information Technology aimed at achieving national information security and self-reliance—accelerated the adoption of domestic databases throughout 2025. Government policies actively encourage universities to prioritise local products, and this momentum shows no signs of slowing.

At the same time, price increases for foreign databases are prompting difficult decisions. Fuzhou University’s experience illustrates the challenge: facing a CNY 6.2 million bill for ScienceDirect in 2025 after an 8% annual increase, the institution suspended its renewal. Such decisions are becoming more common as library and research budgets grow slowly while database costs climb steadily.

Emerging technologies, particularly AI and big data tools, are creating fresh requirements and opportunities, but the financial reality often limits what institutions can pursue.

Looking to 2026, the market faces continued budget contraction, intensifying competition between domestic and foreign vendors, and the growing influence of Open Access. As universities increasingly turn to free resources, the traditional subscription model faces structural pressure that may reshape the commercial landscape.

Conclusion: What has 2025 taught us?

There are shared global trends, however they are expressed differently in every region, highlighting the importance of a local presence. The ability to build relationships on the ground and understand the market is essential.

Across all regions, several themes appear time and again: Simplicity, transparency, and researcher-centred support are universal expectations.

Global commonalities

• OA continues to grow everywhere, though at different speeds

• Budgets are under pressure globally

• Libraries want fewer administrative burdens and more predictable costs

• Strong publisher–library relationships remain foundational

• Trust, integrity, and transparency matter more than ever, especially as AI accelerates change

As we look to 2026, it’s clear that while the journey toward openness is shared, the pathways are distinctly regional. Listening closely to library needs and responding with understanding, flexibility, and clarity remains at the heart of how KGL Accucoms supports its communities across the world.