5 minute read.July 2026 board meeting summary
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
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.
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.
