As 2025 comes to a close, now is the ideal time to prepare for a strong start in 2026. The SSP Compensation and Benefits Benchmarking Survey provides valuable, data-driven insights for both individuals and organizations—while contributing to one of the most important shared resources in scholarly publishing.
For individuals, participating helps you understand where you stand in the industry and plan confidently for the year ahead. Use the results to support salary conversations, career development decisions, and benefits planning. Participants who complete at least 60% of the survey and all required questions receive a complimentary, individualized report that compares select data points from their responses to industry benchmarks for similar roles.
For organizations, the survey offers a trusted foundation for refining compensation and benefits strategies. Participating organizations receive complimentary access to an executive summary of aggregate data to support budgeting, salary adjustments, and workforce planning. Results can also be used year over year to track trends and remain competitive in attracting and retaining talent across the scholarly publishing ecosystem. Individuals can log in using their SSP credentials (your username is typically your email address).
Organizations seeking deeper insights can also purchase an Enterprise Access Subscription, which includes dynamic comparison reports with expanded filters—such as region (country and state), organization size and revenue, organization type, and position-level filters including role level, functional area, focus, and scope. Organizational surveys are best completed by someone in HR or another team member with access to compensation and benefits data, who will serve as the organization’s Authorized User.
Last year’s results (hosted on SSP’s Insights Platform) offered several key insights into the scholarly communications profession, including:
- 95% of individual respondents are employed full-time; 62% have the ability to work fully remotely
- 98% hold a bachelor’s degree or higher; 33% have a master’s degree, and 24% have PhDs
- 71% live in North America (68% in the US); 27% live in Europe and Central Asia (20% in the UK); 2% live in East Asia and the Pacific. Interestingly, the US (65%) and the UK (17%) are the most frequent headquarters for their employers.
This study is a valuable resource for anyone in the scholarly publishing community. The more people participate, the more accurate and informative the results will be. We encourage individuals to complete the survey that applies to them and share the organizational survey information with the right person at their workplace. By sharing your data, you’ll help create fair, research-based compensation standards that benefit the whole industry.
Individuals and organizations who completed the 2024 survey are eligible to participate in the 2025 survey as well. Retaking the survey gives you access to the latest dataset, providing up-to-date insights into your professional environment. Respondents who completed last year will be able to import their data for updates.
Complete the 2025 survey by year’s end to be included in the first wave of reporting!
