Meridian: scholarly publishers bring trusted research into AI

Scholarly publishing has always cooperated on infrastructure. On November 3, Cambridge University Press, Johns Hopkins University Press and Princeton University Press announced that they are the Founding Publishers of Meridian, a University Press community initiative that brings the same model to AI. Meridian is convened by Cashmere and powered by Cashmere's platform.

Meridian is a discovery gateway the publishers authorize

Meridian is the MCP discovery gateway for scholarly content, authorized by the University Presses themselves. Through it, the AI tools researchers already use get licensed access to peer-reviewed scholarship, and every answer carries a full citation and attribution.

Content reached through Meridian is never used to train or fine-tune AI models, and it is never sublicensed or redistributed.

Read rights and inference rights are two different things

Libraries already license read rights. AI introduces a second kind of right. Inference rights cover what AI agents can retrieve and reason over on a researcher's behalf.

Meridian delivers inference rights. It is a discovery layer, and it does not replace existing access.

What it means for publishers

For a scholarly publisher, Meridian means one integration instead of one per AI platform. Participation is opt-in and non-exclusive, so a press can join without disturbing any other licensing deal or distribution channel, and titles can be withdrawn at any time.

Publishers also see which questions their catalog answered, where it ranks in content search and how often it is cited across AI tools.

What it means for libraries

When a researcher wants the complete work, Meridian sends them to the publisher's version of record through their library. Libraries get COUNTER-compliant reporting on how licensed collections are used in AI-assisted research, which supports collection decisions and helps show the library's value to its institution.

There is no infrastructure to build and no AI contracts to negotiate one by one. A closed Beta Pilot opens to select institutions and libraries later this fall.

Governed by and for the scholarly community

The Founding Publishers lead Meridian through its Advisory Council, with institutional library representation forthcoming. The Council shapes Meridian's mission, principles, membership criteria and quality standards, and it becomes the board of directors when Meridian incorporates as an independent not-for-profit. Cashmere convenes Meridian and provides the platform it runs on.

In the words of the Founding Publishers

“The terms for how AI uses scholarship are being set right now, and university and other mission-aligned presses have an opportunity to take part in setting them. Johns Hopkins University Press has spent decades building trust with our partner publishers, scholars and readers, and Meridian lets us extend that trust into the AI systems that researchers and scholars are using on the terms so highly valued by our community.”

Barbara Kline Pope, Executive Director, Johns Hopkins University Press

“The opportunity to collaborate with peer presses, and to expand our partnership with Cashmere, aligns fully with the mission of Princeton University Press to bring the best scholarly content to the most generative global environments for knowledge making and exchange. Meridian is designed to help us adapt the discoverability and accessibility of PUP content to new research methods and methodologies while maintaining every integrity of the underlying intellectual property and copyrights, the valuation of that content, and our ability and agency to steward its engagement and impact.”

Christie Henry, Director, Princeton University Press

“As a university press, we are committed to protecting our authors’ rights while ensuring that high-quality trusted research is discoverable by those who need it, including through AI tools. This new partnership with Meridian will help libraries connect students and researchers with trusted scholarship from a strong and diverse group of participating university presses.”

Mandy Hill, Managing Director, Cambridge University Press

The full announcement is in the November 3 press release

How to take part

Libraries, university presses and other mission-aligned publishers can learn more and apply at meridianalliance.org.