Editorial: recognizing the academic publishing service ecosystem

This paper aims to provide a personal view of the institutions underpinning the academic publishing service ecosystem as a basis for a discussion of change and innovation.

A 25-year comparison of the norms, rules, practices, meanings and symbols in the service ecosystem is made.

Eleven institutional states have been identified, which represent the good, and not so good, changes that have occurred over the period.

This editorial represents an approach, using service ecosystem concepts, to gain an understanding of service innovation possibilities in the academic publishing domain.