diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 47c5d9d19..1f2074287 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -72,6 +72,17 @@
   </profiles>
   <dependencies>
 
+    <!--
+    Projects are expected to explicit depend on version
+    of slf4j that they want to use
+    -->
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
+      <artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId>
+      <version>1.7.25</version>
+      <scope>provided</scope>
+    </dependency>
+
     <!--
     Class retention Nonnull and Nullable annotations
     to assist with IDE auto-completion with Ebean API
@@ -125,12 +136,6 @@
       <version>11.2.1</version>
     </dependency>
 
-    <dependency>
-      <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
-      <artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId>
-      <version>[1.7.1,1.7.99)</version>
-    </dependency>
-
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.antlr</groupId>
       <artifactId>antlr4-runtime</artifactId>