SDG Publishers Compact Fellows

What SDG Publishers Compact Fellows does

SDG Publishers Compact Fellows is a voluntary working group and action group operating under the United Nations' Higher Education Sustainability Initiative (HESI). Founded in 2020 in London, the organization was convened to support signatories of the UN SDG Publishers Compact by providing practical guidance for aligning the academic publishing ecosystem with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The Fellows coordinate four workstreams across 30+ volunteer professionals drawn from major academic publishers, societies, and institutions worldwide (including Taylor & Francis, Wiley, PLOS, Frontiers, Sage, Emerald, CABI, AGU, ASCE, APS, Annual Reviews, Cengage, ScienceOpen, and Cabells), spanning North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. The group is co-chaired by Debra Rowe (also President of the U.S. Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development) and the late Dr. Roger Worthington (until October 2024).

The organization's core outputs are a portfolio of free, openly licensed resources: 12+ Top Action Tips PDF guides covering academic authors, journal editors, publishers, librarians, graduate researchers, educators, academic societies, equity, APC waivers, and communication of research to policymakers and practitioners; the SDG Rubric, an assessment tool for evaluating textbooks and educational materials against the 17 SDGs; the Joint Task Force on Outcomes and Impacts (JTFOI) report; a monthly newsletter; policy briefs; webinars; and curated directories of partner platforms. The Fellows distribute these resources via their website (sdgcompactfellows.org), email newsletters, and partnerships with STM, EASE, ALPSP, IPA, OpenPharma, and ICLEI — which together amplify reach across the global scholarly publishing community.

The organization is explicitly non-commercial. It does not sell products or services, has no disclosed revenue, and operates on a volunteer model with all resources freely available under CC BY 4.0. Operations rely on the institutional backing of HESI and the in-kind contributions of Fellows' parent organizations. The strategic model is best characterized as a UN-affiliated think tank and standards-body function, building social infrastructure for SDG alignment in scholarly communication rather than a commercial enterprise.

Name

SDG Publishers Compact Fellows

Legal name

SDG Publishers Compact Fellows

Website

https://sdgcompactfellows.org

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

SDG Publishers Compact Fellows is a UN-affiliated voluntary working group under HESI that produces free, openly licensed Top Action Tips, the SDG Rubric, and policy guidance to help academic publishers, editors, researchers, and educators align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Academic Publishing Sustainability Resources

NAICS

Professional Organizations (81392), Business Associations (813910), Business, Professional, Labor, Political, and Similar Organizations (8139)

SIC

Services-Membership Organizations (8600), Miscellaneous Publishing (2741)

akta.pro primary industry

Standards Development & Publishing (SDOs, Technical Standards) (MPAJACAB)

Keywords

• Academic publishing sustainability
• SDG alignment guidance
• Scholarly communication resources
• Sustainable development publishing
• Research sustainability advocacy

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

The SDG Publishers Compact Fellows is a volunteer working group under HESI that produces and freely distributes a suite of open-access resources helping the academic publishing ecosystem align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Core offerings include downloadable Top Action Tips PDFs covering 12+ stakeholder groups, the SDG Rubric assessment tool for educational materials, policy briefs, a monthly newsletter, webinars, the JTFOI Report, and a curated Collections, Platforms and Hubs directory.

Product overview

The SDG Publishers Compact Fellows is an advocacy and action group under the Higher Education Sustainability Initiative (HESI), not a commercial product company. Their offering consists primarily of informational resources including the Top Action Tips (a collection of downloadable PDF guides for various academic publishing stakeholders), the SDG Rubric (an evaluation tool for assessing educational materials against the SDGs), policy briefs, newsletters, webinars, and a curated directory of partner resources and platforms. These are free resources distributed via their Squarespace website to support the academic publishing community in aligning with UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Top Action Tips A collection of freely downloadable PDF guides providing actionable advice and best practices for integrating the UN Sustainable Development Goals into research and publishing processes. Includes dedicated tip sheets for academic authors, journal editors, academic publishers, academic librarians, graduate researchers and students, educators, academic societies, guidance on APC waivers and equity, the SDG Rubric usage guide, and tip sheets on communicating research implications to policymakers, journalists, the public, professionals, and practitioners. All content is distributed free of charge under a CC BY 4.0 license.
• SDG Rubric An industry-standard evaluation tool developed to assess textbooks and educational materials for their coverage of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The rubric enables identification of specific areas needing improvement to align content with the 17 SDGs throughout the revision process, and is accompanied by an applications guide for academic book authors and editors addressing the goals one-by-one.
• Policy Brief (WHEC2022)

Quantifiable outcome

• Expanded collection of practical Top Action Tips covering 12+ stakeholder groups including academic authors, journal editors, publishers, librarians, students, educators, and practitioners
• +3 more outcomes

Segments8 records

Ideal customer profiles6 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered core, flagship and minor.

• Higher Education Sustainability Initiative (HESI)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHESI is the parent organization under the UN that provides the framework for the SDG Publishers Compact Fellows. The Fellows operate as a HESI Action Group, providing higher education with an interface between higher education, science, and policy making by raising the profile of higher education in supporting sustainable development.
• SDG Publishers CompactcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe SDG Publishers Compact is a voluntary UN commitment that recognizes publishing industry's responsibility to create a sustainable future. The Fellows were convened specifically to support signatories of this compact in taking practical action towards the SDGs during the Decade of Action (2020-2030).
• STM (International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers)flagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration with STM via their STM SDGs Academic Publishers Forum to officially recognize and promote Top Action Tips and Rubric across the global publishing industry, provide a list of existing SDG content classification resources, explore unified SDGs taxonomy creation, and co-host Solutions Summits to drive action towards SDGs.
• European Association of Science Editors (EASE)flagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerJoint survey with EASE to increase SDG Publishers Compact signatories, reveal progress made by signatories, identify barriers to becoming signatories, and feed creation of guidelines and tools for journal editors. Also collaborated on developing the SDG Checklist for publishers and journals.
• OpenPharmacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMulti-sponsor collaboration focused on increasing communication of practical applications of research outside academia. Joint activities include DORA10 author training session on communicating research outside academia and sessions at Open Pharma summits on Plain Language Summaries.
• ICLEI – Local Governments for SustainabilitycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration to connect researchers with practitioners for practitioners to share real world challenges where research is needed, for co-creating research agendas, and to provide evidence-based practical information on actions to take in practice and policy making.
• Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP)flagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership to officially recognize and promote Top Action Tips and Rubric across the global publishing industry. ALPSP runs an SDGs in Publishing special interest group (SIG) supported by the Fellows. Co-host events and work together to increase number of SDG Publishers Compact signatories among ALPSP members.
• International Publishers Association (IPA)coreGTM or Marketing PartnerIPA represents thousands of individual publishers worldwide. Through the IPA SDG Dashboard, the Fellows' work is featured and promoted. IPA has taken an active role in prioritizing sustainability within its membership and utilizing global goals for programs as part of the Inclusive Publishing and Literacy Committee.
• HESI Rankings, Ratings, and Assessment (RRA) Action GroupcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe SDG Publishers Compact Fellows collaborates with HESI's RRA action group to change rankings systems to give more weight to SDG contributions and establish ways to measure and reward real world outcomes of SDG-related content. Joint Task Force on Outcomes and Impacts (JTFOI) brings together ranking bodies including QS, Times Higher Education, Financial Times, and Elsevier.
• University World NewsminorGTM or Marketing PartnerUniversity World News provides media coverage of the Fellows' activities, press releases, and research findings, helping to amplify their message to higher education audiences globally.
• The Scholarly KitchenminorGTM or Marketing PartnerThe Scholarly Kitchen publishes blog posts by Fellows and coverage of their work, helping reach scholarly publishing professionals with practical guidance on SDGs.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Emerging players

• Knowledge Unlatched: Open access initiative focused on scholarly content accessibility and sustainability. Comparable mission regarding the democratization of academic knowledge and equity in publishing.
• DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals): Curated directory of open access journals operating in the same open scholarly publishing ecosystem. Shares concerns about content discoverability, equity, and quality signals that the Fellows address.
• Creative Commons: Provides the CC BY 4.0 license under which the Fellows' Top Action Tips and SDG Rubric are published. Highly relevant peer for open knowledge infrastructure and licensing frameworks in scholarly publishing.

Direct peers

• OASPA (Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association): Trade association for open access publishers that provides background guidance on equity in OA referenced in the Fellows' APC Waivers Top Action Tips. Direct peer in serving OA publishers and journals.
• SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition): Advocacy organization promoting open access and equitable scholarly publishing. Closely aligned with the Fellows' equity, APC waivers, and open access priorities, serving academic librarians and publishers.
• COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics): Provides ethics guidelines for scholarly publishers and editors. Covers overlapping journal and publisher policy territory, with shared audiences across academic publishing practice reform.
• ALPSP (Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers): Trade association for learned society publishers that runs an SDGs in Publishing SIG supported by the Fellows. Direct peer in serving the same scholarly publishing community and advancing sustainability in publishing.
• European Association of Science Editors (EASE): Professional association for science editors that co-developed the SDG Checklist with the Fellows and co-published surveys on SDG Publishers Compact impact. Targets the same editors and publishers and serves as a peer convener on SDG-related publishing practices.
• DORA (Declaration on Research Assessment): Initiative reforming research assessment with overlapping concerns around SDGs, equity, and journal/publisher practice. Operates in the same scholarly communication reform space and is a co-host of the Fellows' DORA10 seminar.
• STM (International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers): Global trade association for scholarly publishers and a direct cooperating partner on the Fellows' SDG programs. STM runs the SDG Academic Publishers Forum alongside the Fellows and shares the same target audience of academic publishers and editors.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/sdg-publishers-compact-fellows

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about SDG Publishers Compact Fellows