Publish or perish? Or is publishing perishing? Reflections from a Great Debate at EGU26

There’s a particular kind of energy you get in a conference room when something is about to matter. You can feel it before anything starts: chairs filling quickly, people sitting closer than usual, no polite gaps left between strangers. This was the case for the Great Debate on The future of scientific publishing: do we need scientific publishing? at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2026. Then, an eerie silence as a question appeared on screen: ‘do we still need scientific j