44% of Springer Nature published articles now open access

Springer Nature says its approach towards open access (OA) "continues to deliver the highest impact for its authors and the research community"

A new report from the publishing company shows that:

• Authors publishing OA with Springer Nature see their work used more with OA articles published in its journals receiving an average citation of 5.85, which is higher than other mixed model or pure OA publishers

• Springer Nature’s transformative agreements (TAs) continue to have a substantial and sustained impact on increasing OA access and publication globally, delivering 7x more gold OA articles than authors choosing to publish OA in 2023 while not being part of a TA.

• Springer Nature’s TAs are ensuring researchers from all disciplines can publish OA, with the highest yearly global uptake once again being seen by authors in the humanities and social sciences (HSS).

• More people are reading authors' content in Springer Nature journals and books year on year, with data showing an over 20% increase in downloads for OA book and journal content in 2023.

• 44% of the publisher's primary research is now published OA in its hybrid and fully OA journals, up from 38% in 2022.

The report also highlights key initiatives from Springer Nature in 2023 to support equity in OA. These include expansion of TAs into Africa and the Americas, waiving €26m of APCs in fully OA journals and enabling authors from low-income and low- and middle-income countries (LICs and LMICs) to publish in Nature and the Nature research journals at no cost. They also include publishing over 10,000 OA articles free of charge in 2023 in diamond OA journals and experimenting with new low-cost OA models. More details can be found here.

Chief Publishing Officer, Harsh Jegadeesan commented: “We are incredibly proud of the ways in which we are moving the dial for open access - via TAs, open research methods and via our fully OA journals. To accelerate the next phase of the transition, we’re investing strongly in technology and AI, with a particular focus on protecting the integrity and trust of research.  

“However, greater steps need to be taken to ensure equal access and equal representation in research. This remains a key commitment of ours, and a central focus of the report as we seek to further the discussion on how to ensure that the opportunities and benefits OA affords are available to all.”