Board Summary on Crossref

July 2026 board meeting summary

Lucy Ofiesh — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

We’re providing a summary of the board’s July 2026 meeting. The July board meeting is our only in-person meeting. The board gathers for two days of strategic thinking and long-range planning, as well as conducting annual board business. This year, we focused on allocating surplus funds we have on hand to invest in a three-year project to redesign the content system. In a related discussion, we decided to lower content registration fees starting in 2027 because we’ve had a demonstrated history of generating surpluses, exceeding what we need to run Crossref. We also discussed the board structure, as part of our regular review of stakeholder governance. And we conducted annual board business, such as approving the audited financial statements and reviewed our risk register and mitigation plans.

The resolutions are available on the dedicated section of our website, which also lists the members of the Board and offers further information about our governance.

We also managed to squeeze in watching a World Cup game over dinner.

Board business

July board meeting agenda

The board voted unanimously to approve the agenda for the July 2026 meeting. The board then voted to approve the consent agenda, which includes a package of routine board business items.

March board minutes

The board voted unanimously to approve the minutes of the March 2026 board meeting.

Vote to approve a board policy on applying to staff roles

The board discussed and approved a Board Policy to define how to handle instances in which Crossref Board members wish to apply for open Crossref staff positions. The proposed policy applies Crossref’s Conflict of Interest Policy. Board members will be required to step down from the Board if they are applying for a position on the Senior Management or Executive Teams.

Audit Committee report

The audit committee presented the 2025 audited financial statements for review and approval. Crossref received a clean opinion and is in a healthy financial position. The board unanimously approved the statements, which are now available on the finance page of our website

Team & operational updates

Ed Pentz, Ginny Hendricks, and Lucy Ofiesh presented organisational updates. This includes updates on our midyear financial performance, progress on goals for the year, and a review of member participation and statistics on the metadata records and relationships captured in our State of Research Nexus report.

We also provided an update on progress towards establishing a second legal entity, an AISBL in Belgium.

Each July, the board reviews the risk register and risk mitigation plans prepared by the Senior Management Team.

Time-limited investment in our system redesign project

The executive team presented a proposal to allocate $4.9 million from the cash reserves generated through several years of surpluses to hire additional staff for three years to join the permanent team in redesigning the Crossref system (CS). The overall approach is to shrink Crossref’s monolithic code base by gradually rewriting individual modules, with the ultimate goal of delivering more flexible tools and services and strengthening the long-term reliability of the Crossref system. The board discussed the proposal. Following an active discussion on the approach to the redesign and the responsible use of surplus funds, the board approved the use of up to $1.6 million per year for three years.

For more information on the redesign project, please see our recent blog post, Investing $4.9 million of our surplus in rebuilding the Crossref system.

Strategic positioning

We brought in a consultant to help lead the board in a discussion of our long-range strategic position. The board discussed the challenges and opportunities facing scholarly communication, Crossref’s current position in the community, and the role we might play in the future as the needs of our community evolve. This discussion will inform an update to our strategic agenda and the preparation of an impact plan.

Governance review

Periodically, the board conducts a review of the governing structure. These reviews coincide with our biannual POSI self-assessments.

This year’s review was taken in two parts: the consideration of augmenting our governance structure by adding an Advisory Board, and reviewing how we allocate seats on the board. We discussed both of these at length and, while not yet making any changes, the board recognized the need to continue to review this periodically.

Proposal to lower content registration fees

Phase 1 of RCFS focused primarily on lowering membership fees for the least resourced members and simplifying underused, complex content registration fees. In January 2026, we rolled out a new, lower membership fee, removed little-used discounts that contributed to fee complexity, extended our GEM program to include zero-fee membership and content registration for 18 additional countries, and introduced a two-year fee waiver on back-year grants.

Phase 2 of RCFS focused on lowering and further simplifying content registration fees. At the July meeting, the board reviewed and discussed a proposal to (1) reduce content registration fees from $1.00 to $0.95 and from $0.25 to $0.20, while leaving $0.06 record types unchanged, and (2) remove all fees for “back-year” records, effective January 1, 2027.

While this change will have a material financial impact, projected at approximately -760,000 USD lost revenue in 2027, Crossref is in a strong financial position and growing steadily through new members and new record growth.

The board discussed the proposal in detail and voted to approve.

More information on the proposal can be found in our recent blog post, Fee update: lowering and removing DOI registration fees in January 2027

Any other business & executive session

We close each meeting with any other business a board member wants to raise. We summarised the decisions and actions from the meeting. The board then went into Executive Session to discuss any closed issues.

There being no other business, the meeting was adjourned.

March 2026 board meeting summary

Lucy Ofiesh — Wed, 06 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

We’re providing a summary of the board’s March 2026 meeting. At the meeting, the board reviewed progress in our key programs and initiatives, the strategic outlook for 2026, filled a vacancy on the Board, considered an additional legal entity for Crossref, and reviewed our governance structures. The resolutions are available on the dedicated section of our website, which also lists the members of the Board and offers further information about our governance.

Board business

January board minutes

The board voted unanimously to approve the minutes of the January 2026 board meeting.

March board meeting agenda

The board voted unanimously to approve the agenda for the March 2026 meeting. The board then voted to approve the consent agenda, which includes a package of routine board business items.

Vote to appoint a director to a vacated seat

Lisa Schiff of California Digital Library (CDL) stepped down from the board at the end of February, and CDL decided not to name a replacement. The board voted unanimously to take the most recent member election results and appoint Oscar Donde of Pan Africa Science Journal to fill the seat. Oscar will serve out the remaining years on CDL’s term, which is to the end of 2027.

2025 year in review & framing the strategy for 2026

Ed Pentz and Lucy Ofiesh presented a review of 2025, including our financial performance, member participation, and growth of metadata records, connections, and usage. Crossref ended 2025 in a healthy financial position, exceeding revenue by 6% and saving 3% on expenses as compared to the budget. Member participation and statistics on the metadata records are captured in our State of Research Nexus report.

We then turned the discussion to the strategic issues in focus for 2026. Ed discussed the projects in focus for each of the three program groups: Co-creation and Community Trends, Contributing to the Research Nexus, and Open and Sustainable Operations. Details of these programs can be found on the strategic agenda page and public roadmap.

The board discussed the ongoing work of the project known as Resourcing Crossref for Future Sustainability (RCFS). This multi-year effort, which began in 2023, aims to make our fees more accessible, equitable, and simpler to understand and operate. In January 2026, we rolled out a new, lower membership fee, removed little-used discounts that contributed to fee complexity, extended our GEM program to include zero-fee membership and content registration for 18 additional countries, and introduced a two-year fee waiver on back-year grants. In 2026, we are monitoring the effects of these changes and initiating the review of content registration fees.

We provided an update on community investments we’ve made in line with the use-of-surplus funds framework that the board adopted in November 2025. To date, Crossref has committed USD $447,000 to several organisations and initiatives that share our mission.

Establishing an additional legal entity in Europe

The board discussed the decision to broaden our operations by setting up an entity in Europe, specifically an AISBL (International Non-Profit Association) in Belgium. This entity will sit alongside our existing organization and share the same name, mission, and services. They will be connected through a managed agreement. This will help build organisational resiliency, create the capacity for future operations if needed, and reflect the global nature of our membership.

The board discussed the structure of the entities. The entity will be organized so that it may conduct business in the future in a way that maintains equal governance with the primary entity. Concurrently, the team is reviewing storing a back up of the system in the EU for redundancy purposes. A board discussion ensued, followed by a vote.

The board voted unanimously to approve proceeding with establishing a Crossref AISBL to sit alongside the primary entity and serve the goals described above.

Governance review

Periodically, the board conducts a review of the organization’s stakeholder governance. The board discussed the strengths and areas for improvement in the current board structure and options to adjust it in the future. Discussions were preliminary to scope the review and will continue in more detail at the July board meeting.

There being no other business, the meeting was adjourned.

Introducing board meeting summaries, starting with the January 2026 meeting

Lucy Ofiesh — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In an ongoing effort to make more of our operations transparent, we have decided to start sharing summaries of our board meetings on the blog. We already post our board resolutions, but the summaries will give a bit more information on what the board discusses that may or may not show up on the list of resolutions.

We do observe the Chatham House Rule for our board discussions, so we won’t disclose who says what, and there will still be executive sessions that discuss confidential matters that we can’t share. But those discussions constitute a minority of the time we spend together, so the summaries will cover much of what the board discusses.

Let’s start with our recent meeting in January, which is online and lasts one hour.

Crossref Board of Directors Meeting Executive Summary, January 22nd, 2026

The January meeting is held primarily to conduct board business at the start of the board term.

Board business

The board conducted elections for this year’s board leadership, and approved each of the following positions:

Board Chair: Marin Dacos
Board Treasurer: James Phillpotts
Executive Committee members (3 seats): Rose L’Huillier; Rebecca Wambua; and Aaron Wood
Board Secretary and Assistant Secretary: Lucy Ofiesh, Ed Pentz
Audit Committee Chair: Ashley Towne
Nominating Committee Chair: Nick Lindsay

The board then turned to review and adopt the minutes from the November board meeting, December board meeting, and October executive committee meeting.

The board discussed a proposal to update the financial authorization approval levels, a set of guidelines established by the board to define the limits on the approval of expenses that are part of Crossref’s Financial and Accounting Operating Policies. The board adopted changes to the policy that would bring it in line with the scale of Crossref’s business operations.

Looking ahead to 2026

Ed Pentz gave a brief overview of what the board can expect at the 2026 board meetings and reviewed topics that will be discussed at each meeting.

The board next meets in early March.