Springer Nature's open access strategy continues to drive impact and equity

Springer Nature has announced that 44% of its published articles are now open access (OA), marking a significant milestone in the publisher's ongoing efforts to enhance the accessibility and impact of scientific research. The 2023 OA report underscores the success of Springer Nature’s approach to open access, highlighting the increased usage, visibility, and citations of OA articles, alongside initiatives aimed at supporting equity in OA publishing.

For the third consecutive year, publicly available data demonstrates that Springer Nature's open access strategy is delivering unparalleled benefits for its authors. OA articles published in Springer Nature journals continue to achieve the highest impact, with an average citation rate of 5.85—outperforming other mixed model or pure OA publishers. This citation advantage underscores the value of Springer Nature’s OA model in amplifying the reach and influence of scholarly work.

The publisher's transformative agreements (TAs) have played a pivotal role in expanding global access to OA publications. In 2023, these agreements facilitated the publication of seven times more gold OA articles compared to authors publishing OA outside of TAs. This broad uptake is especially evident among researchers in the humanities and social sciences (HSS), where Springer Nature saw the highest global increase in OA publishing.

Moreover, readership of Springer Nature’s OA content continues to rise, with a reported 20% increase in downloads of OA books and journal articles in 2023. This growth reflects the publisher's success in making high-quality research widely accessible to a global audience.

The 2023 OA report also highlights Springer Nature’s commitment to ensuring equitable access to open access publishing. Significant initiatives include the expansion of transformative agreements into Africa and the Americas, as well as the waiving of €26 million in article processing charges (APCs) for fully OA journals. These efforts have enabled authors from low-income and low- and middle-income countries (LICs and LMICs) to publish in prestigious titles such as Nature and the Nature Research journals at no cost.

In addition to these initiatives, Springer Nature published over 10,000 OA articles free of charge in diamond OA journals in 2023 and is exploring new low-cost OA models to further support researchers. These actions demonstrate the publisher's dedication to making OA publishing more inclusive and accessible to all.

Springer Nature’s 2023 OA report is part of a broader commitment to transparency and accountability in its publishing practices. Alongside its Annual Progress Report and Sustainability Report, the OA report provides detailed insights into the publisher’s strategies and achievements in advancing open access.

The full report can be accessed here, alongside the previous report in 2023 and the fully OA report from 2022.

Click here to read the original press release.