Springer Nature has signed its largest institutional OA book deal with the Max Planck Society through the Max Planck Digital Library (MPDL). The agreement covers all Springer Nature book imprints, across a broad range of disciplines, providing OA funding to affiliated authors from over 80 Max Planck Institutes.
UK institutions are in negotiation with Springer Nature to secure a transitional open access (OA) agreement for the Nature, Nature research journals and Palgrave journals. A proposal that meets the requirements of the sector has not yet been provided.
Springer Nature (as Springer) signed its first transformative read and publish agreement in 2015. This Springer compact agreement with VSNU (Association of Universities in the Netherlands) was the first agreement of its kind to combine reading and publishing fees with the aim of transitioning traditional library subscription payments into central funding to support open access (OA) publishing. It has proved to be a pivotal moment in the transition to OA.
Since then, Springer Nature has agreed many such national agreements all around the world, including the world’s largest with Projekt DEAL in Germany. Through a series of case studies, this article will examine the role these agreements have played in facilitating the transition to OA – to bring centralized funding for OA – and analyse how their nature and characteristics have evolved and adapted to reflect the differing needs of individual customers, as well as changing views.
The paper will also consider the challenges faced by publishers, institutions, and funders in agreeing transformative agreements, consider how these ‘blockers’ can be overcome, and evaluate the future role of transformative agreements as a critical precursor to achieving open science.
“Springer Nature today announces the release of PySciDetect, its next generation open source research integrity software to identify fake research. Developed in-house with Slimmer AI and released in collaboration with Dr Cyril Labbé from Université Grenoble Alpes, PySciDetect is available for all publishers and those within the academic community to download and use. …
Since launch, SciDetect has been used by a number of publishers and members of the academic community. For Springer Nature, it has scanned over 3.8million journal articles and over 2.5milion book chapters. Available as open source software, PySciDetect expands on Springer Nature’s commitment to being an active partner to the community, supporting a collaborative effort to detect fraudulent scientific research and protect the integrity of the academic record.”
Springer Nature today announces a second Transformative Agreement (TA) to include its flagship title Nature. The agreement with the Bibsam Consortium in Sweden enables researchers affiliated with 10 initial institutions to publish their research articles accepted for publication in Nature and the Nature Research journals immediately open access (OA). This is at no cost to the individual researchers, as OA costs are covered by the consortium deal.
“You are invited to a virtual panel session with Springer Nature and UC Berkeley.”
“Research Square’s innovative In Review service has expanded to include more than 500 Springer Nature journal titles. The milestone was surpassed this week after 48 additional Springer Nature journals were integrated into the service.
Authors submitting their papers to more than 530 participating Springer Nature journals benefit from sharing their research upon submission, while also increasing transparency in the peer review process.
In Review, a journal-integrated service that allows researchers to post preprints of their manuscripts during article submission, supports journals across the Nature and BMC portfolios, as well as a host of other journals covering physics, engineering, plant and animal sciences, and more. …”
“In an attempt to change things, Nature Communications has since 2016 been encouraging authors to publish peer-review exchanges. In February 2020, and to the widespread approval of Twitter’s science community, Nature announced that it would offer a similar opportunity. Authors of new manuscript submissions can now have anonymous referee reports — and their own responses to these reports — published at the same time as their manuscript. Those who agree to act as reviewers know that both anonymous reports and anonymized exchanges with authors might be published. Referees can also choose to be named, should they desire.
A full year’s data are now in, and the results are encouraging. During 2021, nearly half (46%) of authors chose to publish their discussions with reviewers, although there is variation between disciplines (see ‘Peer review opens up’). Early data suggest more will do so in 2022. This is a promising trend. And we strongly encourage more researchers to take this opportunity to publish their exchanges. Last year, some 69% of Nature Communication’s published research articles were accompanied by anonymous peer-review reports together with author–reviewer exchanges, including manuscripts in life sciences (73% of published papers), chemistry (59%), physics (64%) and Earth sciences (77%)….
The benefits to research are huge. Opening up peer review promotes more transparency, and is valuable to researchers who study peer-review systems. It is also valuable to early-career researchers more broadly. Each set of reports is a real-life example, a guide to how to provide authors with constructive feedback in a collegial manner….”
Springer Nature has today announced its latest transformative agreement (TA), with Italy’s National Research Council (CNR), and also announces the renewal of TAs with the Austrian Academic Library Consortium in Austria and the Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU).
“This morning (February 8), Springer Nature is making another announcement about transformative agreements, this time featuring one in Canada and one in Latin America.
Each represents a national first for Springer, the Latin American deal being based in Colombia….
As of our last transformative-agreement announcement from Springer on January 28—that was the deal struck with Egypt’s Science, Technology, and Innovation Funding Authority and the Egyptian Knowledge Bank—Springer Nature had arranged 14 such deals. Today’s announcement indicates that the company now has 17 national agreements in place, having inked its first such accord in 2014 with a transformative agreement in the Netherlands.
The North American transformative agreement in Canada is for members of the Federal Science Libraries Network (FSLN), intended to support Canada’s “Roadmap for Open Science” to make federal scientific publications openly accessible by providing members with the ability to publish open access; this agreement became active last month.
The Latin American transformative agreement is with Consorcio Colombia and is being announced by Springer Nature as “marking a step in favor of global academic communication and the recognition of Colombian scientific capabilities in all areas of knowledge”; it becomes active in July….”
“Nature Portfolio journals encourage posting of preprints of primary research manuscripts on preprint servers of the authors’ choice, authors’ or institutional websites, and open communications between researchers whether on community preprint servers or preprint commenting platforms….
Preprints may be posted at any time during the peer review process. Posting of preprints is not considered prior publication and will not jeopardize consideration at Nature Portfolio journals….
Springer Nature has partnered with Research Square (Springer Nature has a majority interest in Research Square) to provide In Review, a journal-integrated solution for preprint sharing, supporting authors across all the communities we serve to share their research early….
Authors may choose any license of their choice for the preprint including Creative Commons licenses. …
Preprints may be cited in the reference list of articles under consideration at Nature Portfolio journals….”
“The future of science is open and the publishing landscape is changing as a result. The transition from subscription to open access (OA) publishing is irreversible. The benefits of OA for authors are obvious: by making the final version of a research article — the version of record — free to read and discoverable for everyone, OA allows researchers’ work to reach a broader audience and to make a bigger impact.
Since January 2021, all authors of newly submitted manuscripts can benefit from these advantages, as they can now choose an OA publishing option when their work is accepted for publication in Nature Metabolism. OA publication is supported by payment of an article processing charge of €9500, which is typically paid by the authors’ institutions and funding bodies, or is covered by ‘transformative agreements’ (more on these below)….”
“Springer Nature and the Egyptian Government have agreed a “landmark” deal to drive forward open research and ensure Egyptian research achieves greater global visibility.
The educational publisher has teamed up with the Science, Technology & Innovation Funding Authority in Egypt and the Egyptian Knowledge Bank (EKB) to sign a Transformative Agreement (TA) boosting momentum across global economies for Open Access (OA) publishing and the wider move to open science and research. Transformative Agreements enable participating institutions to combine journal subscription access along with OA publication costs. …”
Springer Nature, The Science, Technology and Innovation Funding Authority (STDF) and the Egyptian Knowledge Bank (EKB) have today agreed a landmark Transformative Agreement (TA), increasing the momentum across global economies of all sizes for open access (OA) publishing and the wider move to open science and research. This agreement, the first TA for Egypt and the first deal of its type for the region[1] , is expected to see over 3000 OA articles a year published by Egyptian researchers with Springer Nature, increasing the reach and impact[2] of Egyptian research across all disciplines. The deal provides researchers with read access to research in over 2,400 Springer Nature journals and the option to publish in Springer Nature’s hybrid and fully OA journal portfolio. Accelerating the transition to OA in Egypt in this way will ensure the country’s high quality research is reusable, shareable and discoverable to the world’s scholars immediately upon publication.
Eight of the ten articles are open access.