Board election 2025 candidates

From 51 applications, our Nominating Committee put forward the following eight candidates for the five seats open for election to the Crossref Board of Directors. We will elect four large member seats and one small/midsized member seat. Please read their candidate statements below.

If you are a voting member of Crossref your ‘voting contact’ will receive an email September 17th from eBallot. Please follow the instructions in that email which includes relevant election process and policy information and a unqiue link to cast your vote.

Tier 1, Small and mid-sized members (electing one seat)

Tier 2, Large members (electing four seats)

Tier 1, Small and mid-sized members (electing one seat)

Rebecca Wambua, Chairperson, Distance, Open and e-Learning Practitioners’ Association of Kenya (DOLPA)

Kenya

+- Rebecca Wambua's statements

Personal statement

As a committed advocate for open scholarship and metadata integrity, I bring to the Crossref Board a deep understanding of scholarly communication ecosystems and a passion for inclusive, data-driven research infrastructure. With extensive experience in academic leadership, digital learning, and research dissemination across Africa, I serve as Chairperson of the Distance, Open and e-Learning Practitioners Association of East Africa (DOLPA-EA). I seek to represent and amplify the voices of underrepresented research communities in the global metadata landscape.

Crossref’s mission to make research outputs discoverable, verifiable, and connected aligns closely with my vision of equitable access to scholarly information. I spearheaded the establishment and registration of the Journal for Contemporary Issues in ODeL, ensuring DOI assignment and metadata integrity for African scholarship. I am well-versed in Crossref’s core services—including DOI registration, Crossmark, and Cited-by—and value their role in creating persistent, trusted links between scholarly outputs.

My vision for the Crossref community is one where metadata is interoperable, transparent, and globally representative. I would advocate for stronger engagement with publishers and institutions in the Global South, ensuring their outputs are visible, indexed, and connected. I also see significant potential in expanding metadata enrichment through tools such as ROR and the Funder Registry.

Organisation statement

The inclusion of DOLPA-EA, a vibrant professional body representing seven countries (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo) with over 250 members from more than 50 universities, would advance Crossref’s commitment to diversity and global representation. Through board service, I would provide regional insight, strategic leadership, and unwavering dedication to Crossref’s open infrastructure principles.

Our representation would also ensure that the perspectives of institutions operating in resource-constrained and underrepresented environments are meaningfully included in shaping the future of scholarly infrastructure. Many of the universities we represent face challenges with visibility, discoverability, and access to global research networks. Crossref’s services—particularly DOI assignment, metadata registration, and persistent linking—are crucial tools for elevating the credibility and accessibility of their research.

By joining the Board, we would serve as a bridge between Crossref and a growing network of institutions eager to adopt and integrate its services.

Oscar Donde, Journal Chief Editor, Pan Africa Science Journal

Kenya

+- Oscar Donde's statements

Personal statement

As a dedicated member of the Crossref Board and former African Ambassador to Crossref, I have greatly participated in championing for metadata integrity, research discoverability, and inclusive participation from the Global South. I now express my interest in serving a second term to deepen this impact.

Through numerous outreach, training, and policy engagement, I have elevated the voices of journals and publishers from low-income regions. As an Editor-in-Chief of the Pan Africa Science Journal, researcher and a professor at Egerton University, I have supported many journals in understanding and adopting Crossref services such as DOI registration, metadata deposition, and Cited-by linking. My strong support for the Global Equitable Membership (GEM) Program has enabled many publishers and journals in under-resourced regions to become Crossref members, enhancing their visibility and credibility. This has led to their excellent performance in metadata management, enabling them to win awards, including the recent crossref metadata awards that I presided over.

With a grounded understanding of Crossref’s technical and strategic direction, I envision a more equitable metadata infrastructure that addresses the diverse needs of our global community. In a second term, I will advocate for increased support for non-profit and small publishers, capacity-building for editorial teams, and broader partnerships aligned with open science and multilingual access.

I believe the future of Crossref lies in a community-centered approach that empowers all knowledge producers, regardless of size or geography, to contribute to a robust scholarly record. I remain fully committed to advancing this vision with integrity, inclusivity, and action.

Organisation statement

The presence of Pan Africa Science Journal and Egerton University on the Crossref Board offers an important and underrepresented perspective that aligns with Crossref’s commitment to serving a diverse and global membership. Both institutions, like so many others with similar status are deeply engaged in scholarly publishing, where there is growing momentum in research output but limited access to infrastructure and global visibility.

Pan Africa Science Journal, as a regional, open-access publisher, and Egerton University, as a leading academic and research institution in the region, represent a significant portion of Crossref’s emerging members from the Global South. My inclusion on the Board ensures that Crossref remains responsive to the needs of smaller, non-profit publishers and academic institutions operating in resource-constrained settings. The membership will ensure that universities, research institutions, small journals and publishers are fully brought on board on matters of metadata management, including the registration of thesis, patents and funded projects. Moreover, our organizational experiences bring practical insight into the challenges and opportunities faced by new and developing Crossref members, which is critical for shaping policies and services that are equitable, scalable, and inclusive. Indeed, ensuring that the voices of all institutions, funders, publishers and journals are part of Board-level decision-making helps fulfill that mission.

By representing these organizations, I will contribute to a more balanced and representative governance structure, one that reflects the full diversity of the Crossref community and ensures that its future is shaped by all regions and publishing models.

Nwachukwu Egbunike, Head, Pan-Atlantic University Press

Nigeria

+- Nwachukwu Egbunike's statements

Personal statement

I have over two decades experience in book publishing from Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country. My experience in scholarly publishing since I started heading Pan-Atlantic University Press (PAU Press) – one of the most prominent university presses in Africa – is a testament to my broad experience in academic publishing. Under my watch, PAU Press has expanded the scope, reach and depth of titles - academic books and journal. Last year, the Press, under my watch, expanded our niche with the Africa Interdisciplinary Series (AIS) - a book series intersecting business, politics, philosophy and media studies. AIS is the first of such publications in Africa. Early this year, PAU Press became the first university press in West Africa to join the Association of University Presses, and the third in Africa, as an affiliate member. In addition, I am a board member of Africa Digital Rights Network (ADRN).

This broad expertise, in all modesty, has equipped me with the leadership capacity and foresight from the Global South, which I am certain is a prerequisite for expanding the current goals and vision of Crossref.

Crossref must grow with more global influence in accordance with its vision: “a rich and reusable open network of relationships connecting research organisations, people, things, and actions; a scholarly record that the global community can build on forever, for the benefit of society”. In the past two decades Crossref has been faithful to this mission. However, the time has come to be more deliberate and systematically disruptive, to ensure not only further growth but sustainability. My track record in praxis and practice in scholarly publishing is gradually transforming academic publishing in the Global South. This perspective is imperative to the further enhancement to the world’s prime scholarly organisation.

If elected, together with other board members, I will go beyond the call of duty to strategically reposition Crossref for greater heights.

Together we can!

Organisation statement

For diversity and inclusion to morph from mere tokenism, it must be based on competence.

In all modesty, I am not new to bringing unique perspectives to international organizations based on my experiences as a major player from Africa’s Global South. For many years, in my capacity the Community Manager and later Editor of Sub-Saharan Africa in Global Voices - an international, independent news organization - I oversaw the revolution of the processes of that organization. The Sub-Saharan African team grew under my leadership to one of the back bones of dedicated writers and translators of Global Voices community.

My track record in Pan-Atlantic University (PAU) as a scholar, teacher and head has contributed significantly to the university’s mission. PAU recently applied and got the Mastercard scholarship grant for vulnerable and special needs students.

The African Digital Rights Network of which I became a Board Member in 2024 is currently undergoing positive reforms in accordance with our vision.

That said, all my greatest competence is being able to work with people all through my career. This is rooted in the African viewpoint of ‘Ubuntu’ (‘I am’ only because ‘we are’). Consequently, diversity for me is not only a token but rooted in my identity, competence and commitment to serve. These are qualities which are at the core of the Crossref community, mission and vision.

Tier 2, Large members (electing four seats)

Damian Bird, Publishing & Operations Director, CABI

United Kingdom

+- Damian Bird's statements

Personal statement

My publishing career has included leadership roles across publishing, operations, sales, and product development, giving me a broad perspective on how content is created, delivered, and used. As Publishing Director at CABI since 2019, I have responsibility for shaping and delivering our publishing strategy in alignment with CABI’s broader mission: to improve lives worldwide by solving problems in agriculture and the environment. This context gives me a strong appreciation of the power of open, trusted knowledge infrastructure to support global development goals.

At CABI, I lead cross-functional teams spanning publishing, operations, data, and platforms. We serve diverse audiences—from researchers and practitioners to policymakers and smallholder farmers—and this breadth continually pushes us to innovate in how we produce and disseminate content. Recent work includes modernising our metadata-driven workflows, broader application of our controlled vocabulary, experimenting with AI to enhance discoverability, and supporting open access in underrepresented regions. These efforts speak directly to Crossref’s mission to make research outputs easy to find, cite, link, and assess. I admire Crossref’s collaborative approach to infrastructure-building and its emphasis on community governance, interoperability, and transparency. I think the Board should bring a mix of strategic publishing insight and practical experience in evolving metadata and content delivery systems. I’m particularly interested in how Crossref can continue to advance equitable access and participation globally—values that strongly align with CABI’s own.

Before joining CABI, I spent 18 years at Oxford University Press, leading teams in academic books and journals across content development, operations, and sales.

Organisation statement

CABI is an international, intergovernmental, not-for-profit organization that improves people’s lives by applying scientific knowledge to solve problems in agriculture and the environment. Our mission is delivered through a unique combination of publishing, research, and development projects, all shaped by the priorities of our 48 Member Countries and delivered via a global network of centres and scientific staff.

With over a century of experience in scientific research and dissemination, CABI provides a broad range of publishing products and information services that support study, practice, and decision-making. Our content is used by researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and farmers—particularly in the Global South—where access to timely, trusted knowledge can have a transformational impact.

Our publishing model includes non-traditional formats such as abstracting and indexing databases, compendia, and decision-support tools, alongside books and journals. These are designed to ensure information is discoverable, actionable, and accessible to a wide range of users. To support this, we invest heavily in metadata quality, controlled vocabularies, and taxonomic rigour—an approach that closely aligns with Crossref’s mission to enable the findability, linking, and reuse of research outputs.

CABI’s commitment to interoperability and data standards also reflects our strong belief in collaborative infrastructure. As an active member of the scholarly communications community, we value initiatives that promote openness, transparency, and equitable participation. We see Crossref as a vital partner in this ecosystem, particularly in ensuring that research outputs from diverse regions and user communities are represented and connected in the global record.

Rose L’Huillier, Senior Vice President Researchers & Librarians Solutions, Elsevier

Netherlands

+- Rose L'Huillier's statements

Personal statement

In my 21 years of experience in the STM industry, I gained a wide variety of skills and knowledge that could help guide Crossref through the next phase in its development. Due to the variety of roles that I fulfilled at Elsevier, I have a strong background in strategy, publishing, analytics and product management. I was lucky to have been at the forefront of the implementation of open access options at Elsevier, including the building of a new infrastructure, and I am proud to see Elsevier now as one of the largest and fastest growing open access publishers. As a digital product professional with wide STM expertise (currently overseeing products like ScienceDirect, Scopus and Mendeley), I care deeply about creating value with products and services for the benefit of research and society. I am also a strong believer in community collaboration.

During my tenure at Crossref, I served on the Strategy Committee, the M&F Committee, and am currently on the Executive Board as Treasurer. I also serve on the GetFTR board. Crossref continues to make significant progress to support the scholarly ecosystem, Crossref taking on Retraction Watch and Similarity Check are important examples. I’d be honored to continue to support Crossref through its continuing journey of balancing high performance and member satisfaction on existing services with investing in the future of a fully connected open research ecosystem.

Organisation statement

At Elsevier, we believe that to meet the ever-growing needs of researchers and scholars, the information system supporting research must be founded upon the principles of source neutrality, interoperability and transparency, placing researchers under full control of their information. As one of the largest open access publishers, we provide authors with a choice of publication models, and are investing in tools such as SSRN, Mendeley Data, and text and data mining to support Open Science.

Today, a vibrant array of companies, non-profits, universities, and researchers provide scholarly tools and information resources. Common standards and shared infrastructure play a vital role enabling innovation and fostering competition towards finding ever better ways for researchers and their institutions to manage the unprecedented amount of knowledge and data that is available to today. As an industry leader, Elsevier has a strong track record of supporting many of the standards and infrastructure services we rely on today: We were charter members of the International DOI Foundation, have been involved with Crossref since its start, and are founding members of ORCID and CHORUS.

As the largest financial contributor to Crossref, we are proud of the role we play in sustaining this vital shared resource, and as a large organization, we are also able to commit significant staff time to the adoption of new initiatives, such as ROR, the Article Sharing Framework (ASF), and new schema. We continue to support the maintenance and enhancement of the Crossref Funder Registry as a free service to the community.

John Sivo, Senior Business Process and Data Governance Manager, IEEE

United States

+- John Sivo's statements

Personal statement

Having worked in publishing at IEEE for the past 15 years, I currently represent IEEE on the Crossref Similarity Check Advisory Group and lead IEEE’s preprint server TechRxiv. Through these roles, I have become very familiar with Crossref as a crucial source for global metadata exchange. Beyond this, I lead IEEE’s reproducibility initiatives, guided by our volunteer board, and our data governance strategies. My direct involvement with the systems and processes that generate our content, coupled with my Data Governance oversight of data integrity initiatives to resolve discrepancies, gives me a comprehensive understanding of how our data interacts with Crossref and is disseminated globally. I firmly believe Crossref will continue to be essential in upholding scientific integrity by connecting diverse research outputs into a lasting and reusable scholarly record.

Organisation statement

IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization, is committed to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. Through its highly cited publications, conferences, technology standards, and professional and educational activities, IEEE and its members inspire a global community. This mission closely aligns with Crossref’s goal of facilitating global research communication through metadata exchange for the betterment of society. As a large, non-profit publisher in the engineering and technology space, IEEE is dedicated to producing impactful publications and ensuring the integrity of the scientific record’s metadata through our data governance strategies and processes. Our active participation as a current board member of CHORUS and our ongoing dedication to the STM community demonstrates IEEE’s commitment to knowledge sharing, solution development, innovation advancement, and collaboration among funders, societies, publishers, institutions, and the public. We believe IEEE’s independent voice on the board would provide valuable balance alongside other publishers. Notably, IEEE has previously served on the Crossref board, bringing many years of publishing expertise, a proven track record of collaboration, and a strong dedication to scientific integrity and looks forward to the opportunity to contribute to the Crossref board in the future.

Nick Lindsay, Director for Journals and Open Access, The MIT Press

United States

+- Nick Lindsay's statements

Personal statement

My service on the Crossref board from 2023–2025 has been an engaging and stimulating experience, and I hope to continue contributing to the important work the board has undertaken during this time. Looking ahead, I believe Crossref is uniquely positioned to lead efforts in strengthening metadata quality and improving the integrity of the scholarly record—especially through strategic partnerships such as the recent acquisition of the Retraction Watch database. These efforts underscore Crossref’s strong commitment to its mission: to make research objects easy to find, cite, link, assess, and reuse.

I am particularly passionate about supporting initiatives that lower barriers for smaller and non-commercial publishers, helping them participate fully in the metadata ecosystem. I also want to help members make better use of existing tools like Crossmark, while supporting the development of new services that respond to our community’s evolving needs. In addition, I see tremendous opportunity for Crossref to expand its outreach, training, and support to underrepresented regions and emerging research communities.

As our community continues to grow in size and diversity, I believe it is vital that Crossref remains not only a steward of reliable, open infrastructure but also a catalyst for innovation in scholarly communication. I would be honored to continue serving our members and advancing Crossref’s mission in this next phase of growth.

Organisation statement

MIT Press is a mission-driven publisher at the intersection of science, technology, art, and design. As one of the world’s leading university presses, and one of the first to fully embrace digital distribution and open access, MIT Press brings a unique perspective to the Crossref board—one that blends scholarly values with a forward-looking approach to publishing infrastructure.

Our presence on the board ensures representation for nonprofit, university-based publishers who are actively experimenting with open models and new forms of metadata integration. We serve a diverse author and reader base, and our experiences navigating the complexities of open access policies, global discoverability, and metadata stewardship can offer insights that benefit the broader Crossref community.

MIT Press is also deeply committed to metadata transparency and innovation, as evidenced by our early adoption of Crossref services like Crossmark. We bring the perspective of a publisher that must balance sustainability with openness, and that advocates for equitable participation by smaller publishers and global institutions in the scholarly ecosystem.

Having MIT Press on the board supports a diversity of publisher types and sizes, and reinforces Crossref’s role as a community-governed organization serving the full spectrum of scholarly communication. Our continued engagement would help ensure that Crossref evolves in ways that reflect the values of collaboration, openness, and integrity that define the scholarly world we all strive to support.

Anjalie Nawaratne, VP Data Transformation / Chief Business Architect, Springer Nature

Netherlands

+- Anjalie Nawaratne's statements

Personal statement

I’ve worked in scholarly publishing for nearly fifteen years and I am currently responsible for the data transformation at Springer Nature. I have served as a Crossref board member since 2022 and this year I have also had the opportunity to serve on the audit committee.

I have found that Crossref board meetings always have a way of reconnecting you to the ground truth of the scientific community. I believe I can contribute my knowledge and experience from working on complex technology, data, and product initiatives within the scholarly publishing field. Additionally, I would approach topics with curiosity, ask questions, and seek diverse perspectives to generate ideas. I would be honored to serve if re-elected for a second term.

Crossref services such as content registration, reference linking, Cited-by and other services continue to develop a trusted and resilient global infrastructure making research objects easy to find, cite, link, assess, and reuse.

I believe that there are some critical and significant problems facing society today where scientific research holds the key. The vision I would have for our community is that, as members, we continue to come together sharing metadata across boundaries to harness the strength of connectivity and interdependence. Crossref is a multi-country organisation and now has members in 160 countries. Being able to quickly and effectively connect research across the global network of scientists will mean that we find solutions to these problems faster.

Organisation statement

Springer Nature’s mission is to advance scientific discovery and make ideas and information accessible around the world. Shared infrastructure for content linking and metadata management is fundamental to this, and we admire and fully support the role that Crossref plays in advancing these efforts within the scientific community. As a founding member of Crossref we have been an active and dedicated board member since its inception. We understand that Crossref needs tangible support from its membership, and as a large organization, we take the responsibility to deliver such support. We remain dedicated to leveraging our scale and reach to enhance the scientific record and contribute to innovative projects that advance the development of open science.

Springer Nature is fortunate to have the dedicated capacity and subject matter experts who focus on macro-level topics that impact the scientific community such as research integrity and global policy. We would continue to support Crossref and the board by facilitating open channels, fostering meaningful dialogue and sharing expertise on these critical issues. From a personal perspective, I bring a strong background in technology and product development, with extensive experience working with data at scale with a keen interest in leveraging data to create value for researchers throughout their journey. I am a strong believer that policies and standards are the essential enablers for future innovation.