Sarah Bray is a Professor of Developmental Biology and the Joint Head of the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge, UK. In 2023, Sarah became the Chair of The Company of Biologists' Board of Directors. As the Company marks its 100-year anniversary in 2025, we met with Sarah to learn more about her early association with the Company, her responsibilities as the Chair of the Company's Board of Directors, the philosophy underlying the Company's longevity and our 100-year anniversary celebrations.
How did you first become involved with the Company and/or its journals?
When I first set up my own lab at the University of Cambridge in the 1990s, several of our early papers were published in Development (Jennings et al., 1994, 1995; De Celis et al., 1996a,b, 1997). Indeed, Development has remained a key part of my scientific journey and one might say that's how my initial familiarity with the Company began. In reality, I encountered the Company earlier than that because I met a few people who were involved in the running of The Company of Biologists, including Richard Skaer, the Company's then-Secretary, when I was a student at the University of Cambridge, UK. However, I didn't make any real connection between the Company and its journals back then. This might be because, at the time, the journals were all very differently branded; the recognisable and unified Company brand you see today was only instituted in 2015 (Pourquié et al., 2015; Bray et al., 2025).
How did you come to be a Director and then take up the role of Chair at the Company?
I became aware that some of the leading researchers who I knew through my work, including the likes of Matthew Freeman, Daniel St Johnston, Tim Hunt and John Gurdon, were Directors of the Company. When Matthew, Chair of the Company's Board of Directors at the time, asked whether I would be interested in being a Director, I readily agreed. I was enthusiastic about contributing to an organisation that published some of my favourite journals and that also had a strong community ethos. Soon after my appointment in 2016, I also became a member of Development's Advisory Group – a set of Directors with specific responsibility for oversight of the journal.
In January 2023, when it became clear that Matthew was stepping down and the Company's Board of Directors were actively seeking a new Chair, a couple of people asked me if I would be interested in the role. By then, I was well acquainted with the Company as a Director and found it to be an extremely inspiring and interesting organisation. I had been a Head of the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge for nearly five years at that point, and I had also chaired several scientific panels, including the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) Fellowships Committee and the European Research Council panel. I thought my experience of heading such diverse scientific teams would be valuable for the role of the Company's Chair and put myself forward to take it on.
We strive to safeguard the Company's reputation and values, while promoting its core objectives to the scientific community at every opportunity we get
What does being a Director of the Company involve?
In addition to representing the Company at various scientific meetings and being involved in some of the Company's committees, such as the Grants Committee and the organising committees of some of our one-off projects, the role of a Director spans a myriad of other responsibilities. You have to be dedicated to ensuring the best interests of the Company, while also being aware of the publishing landscape. While the journals’ Editors-in-Chief and Editors are mainly involved in overseeing the scientific content that is published, and our in-house specialists drive our publishing strategies, we (the Directors) meet quarterly to review the overall direction and ethos of the Company. A significant part of this is guiding the charitable side of the Company to ensure that we continue to support the research community through our Journal Meetings, Workshops, grants, Travelling Fellowships and other activities. We delegate the day-to-day decision-making to the in-house senior management team and try to ensure that the organisation complies with its governing and charity laws. Overall, we strive to safeguard the Company's reputation and values, while promoting its core objectives to the scientific community at every opportunity we get.
Looking forwards, what are the main focuses for the Company at the moment?
Our primary focuses include publishing high-quality science in an accessible manner and finding ways to amplify and best support our charitable objectives. In recent years, Open Access (OA) in scholarly publishing has been a subject of major discussions. With two fully OA journals (Disease Models & Mechanisms and Biology Open) and three transformative journals (Development, Journal of Cell Science and Journal of Experimental Biology), which offer both OA and subscription options, and with changing mandates from funders and institutions, there are complex issues to consider. As the Directors of the Company, we bring up questions relating to OA at every Board meeting and constantly (re)evaluate our steps: have we made the right decision, do we want to change our course of action, and so on. We have been pleasantly surprised by the positive impact of our Read & Publish agreements (which combine subscription access with fee-free publishing for authors) with over 900 participating academic institutions from around the world. I think we are embarking on challenging times as we go through the next round of negotiations regarding OA agreements. We are striving to steer our organisation through the rapidly changing publishing landscape in a way that maintains our integrity as a company dedicated to the scientific community. We are also always keen to make sure that every researcher has an equal opportunity to publish in our journals, irrespective of their funders' mandates. This is especially important for individuals in organisations without Read & Publish agreements with us, particularly if they are based in countries that lack the financial resources to pay subscription or publication charges. We try to ensure that authors from developing and transition economy countries are supported through waivers and free access to content (for instance, Research4Life provides institutions in lower- and middle-income countries with online access to academic and professional peer-reviewed content). While it is extremely important for us to listen to our communities in terms of the barriers to publication, I have also learnt a lot about the practicalities and costs of quality publishing through my job as a Director and the Chair of the Company that I didn't necessarily know as a scientist at the bench or even as a Principal Investigator.
As a not-for-profit publisher, we channel a lot of our energy and resources towards charitable activities for the community
As a not-for-profit publisher, we channel a lot of our energy and resources towards charitable activities for the community, which include grants for scientific meetings and conferences, as well as organising our own events, and we take immense care to make sustainable choices to minimise the environmental impact of these meetings that are so treasured by the community (Bray et al., 2025). Through our biopositive initiative, The Forest of Biologists, we are planting a tree in a UK forest for every Research Article or Review published in one of our journals – I am delighted that an oak tree was planted for my group's recent work published in Development (Townson et al., 2023).
Beyond some of the obvious steps, I believe that sustainable and ethical measures also involve looking within the organisation. Recently, we have taken steps to update our governance approaches to ensure that our business is sustainable for the foreseeable future while being transparent in the ways we operate. Our Operational Audit Committee (who are involved in overseeing financial reporting, regulatory compliance, internal systems and controls, risk management and the effectiveness of external audit processes) has been particularly savvy on this front, as they continually bring forth new ideas so that we can better manage ourselves as an organisation and evolve instead of getting stuck in regressive ways. Previously, Directors could serve for as long as they liked, but since 2024 we have defined a limited term of ten years for every Director. Additionally, we openly solicit applications for the Director positions, unlike previous times when Directors were chosen through personal recommendations from the Board. All these approaches aim to lay out a fairer and more transparent framework within the Company.
The Company is increasingly at the forefront of changes in the publishing ecosystem. Can you tell us about some of the experiments it's been involved in over recent years?
I feel particularly enthusiastic about preLights, which is a great platform for encouraging early-career researchers to write about preprints on timely topics spanning biological sciences. The Company was ahead of the curve with preLights, and our initiative helped to inspire others, which speaks highly of its impact. I believe that imitation is indeed the highest form of flattery, and I am really proud to have been associated with this pioneering initiative.
The Company of Biologists has always been forward-looking and interested in experimenting with different ways of approaching things – at least in the time that I've been involved with it. Becoming a part of Review Commons is an example of the Company's enthusiasm for new approaches. Led by EMBO, this initiative provides journal-agnostic peer review and the option for publication in one of the partner journals. I know a lot of authors who have taken this route when submitting their work for publication and they really appreciate it. I hope more scholarly journals join Review Commons because it is a positive move for authors and I would like to see it sustain.
For many years, the Company has provided financial support to societies, including the British Society for Developmental Biology (BSDB). How does this relationship help to foster the UK developmental biology community?
The relationship between the Company and the BSDB represents good symbiosis, as is also true for the other societies we support, including the British Society for Cell Biology (BSCB) and the Society for Experimental Biology (SEB). The BSDB would not have achieved its present status without the Company's continued support over the years: the Company's funding enables the society to run its meetings and offer grants to young scientists so that they can attend them. We also provide funds for other activities, such as summer studentships for undergraduates that are administered by the society. This support has been important for growing a larger community of developmental biologists in the UK. There is also reciprocity as the society helps make the research community aware of the journals and the Company's charitable giving. The developmental biology community is extremely strong in the UK, which is probably made possible by the combined forces of The Company of Biologists, the BSDB and the researchers themselves.
The Company is celebrating its 100th birthday this year. What do you think is the secret to its longevity and success?
I would say that being receptive to new ideas and having a strong moral and ethical compass are key. The Company's Directors are research-active scientists who are extremely passionate about supporting biology and biologists. The philosophy underlying the foundation of the Company is that scientific publishing must be about researchers and the community, rather than external stakeholders and businesses, because it's easy to lose sight of the ethos if you get solely consumed by the profits. Despite its name being The Company of Biologists, which may come across as a bit orthodox to some, its actions have been quite the opposite as the Company has remained ahead of the curve in several publishing and scientific initiatives. While our motto of supporting biologists and inspiring biology as a not-for-profit publisher has been one of the secrets to our longevity so far, it also makes our existence challenging in a market that is driven by profiteers. Thus, it is crucial that the scientific community supports us – as readers, authors and referees.
Our motto of supporting biologists and inspiring biology as a not-for-profit publisher has been one of the secrets to our longevity
What are you most looking forward to over this anniversary year?
I am looking forward to the opportunity to celebrate the Company as a whole. It's really interesting to think about the 100-year history that led to where we stand today (Bray et al., 2025). Also, the Biologists @ 100 conference (https://100yearsconference.biologists.com/) will be a great celebration. We wanted to hold a meeting like this because it is our once-in-100-year opportunity to bring together all the communities served by the Company, its journals and other activities. We were delighted to incorporate the annual spring meetings of the BSCB and BSDB and a satellite meeting from the SEB. We are looking forward to celebrating some of the exciting science in those fields today as well as looking towards the challenges of the future. There will be a strong focus on early-career researchers, and we have also thoroughly considered sustainability at this meeting.
What do you enjoy most about your involvement with the Company?
Overall, I really enjoy being a part of such an interesting and progressive organisation, and I love meeting different people through my role at the Company. I get to work alongside Directors from different backgrounds and experiences, the journal Editors-in-Chief and in-house teams, and the Company's organising committees. These interactions helped me learn more about the publishing business and how the distinct scientific networks operate (for instance, the developmental biology community works differently from the network of comparative physiologists and biomechanists). I also love attending the Company's Workshops whenever I can!
Sarah Bray's contact details: Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3DY, UK.
E-mail: [email protected]
Sarah Bray was interviewed by Saanjbati Adhikari, Features Editor at The Company of Biologists. This piece has been edited and condensed with approval from the interviewee.
Footnotes
The Company of Biologists: celebrating 100 years
This article is part of ‘The Company of Biologists: celebrating 100 years’ anniversary collection. To view the full collection of articles, please visit: https://journals.biologists.com/journals/pages/celebrating_100_years, and for details of more of our activities happening during 2025, please go to: https://www.biologists.com/100-years/.