Accelerating open access at scale
A look at three transformative agreements
Foreword
Open science is essential to addressing the world’s urgent challenges. When research is open, science advances faster and more rigorously, enhancing transparency, accessibility, and reusability.
Open access (OA), which ensures that research outputs are accessible and available to all, is the foundation of our support for open science. Gold OA – with articles immediately available on publication under a Creative Commons licence – has benefited millions of Springer Nature authors by increasing readership and engagement with their work, including higher downloads, citations, and attention from a diverse global audience.1
To accelerate the shift to OA at scale, we pioneered transformative agreements (TAs)2, enabling consortia and institutions to cover the publishing costs of immediate gold OA while maintaining subscription access for their affiliated researchers. Since launching our first TA in 2015, we have released numerous reports3 demonstrating that this model provides a sustainable and scalable path to OA:
- Growing OA publishing and increasing access to subscription articles for affiliated researchers.
- Making OA possible for diverse disciplines and member institutions, regardless of funding availability.
- Increasing transparency around the cost of OA, with centrally managed funds, and improving cost control for institutions.
- Delivering efficiencies for researchers and their institutions, simplifying the process of managing payments and centralising compliance management.
Some critics argue that TAs are not accelerating the transition to full OA quickly enough. Yet, we remain convinced of the efficacy of TAs as a fast, scalable, and equitable route to global OA. The TA model balances the need for speed with the complexities of implementation, ensuring that each agreement is tailored to meet the differing needs of countries and regions at different stages of this transition.
This case study, alongside our previous case studies on the UK and the USA, underscores the importance of expanding TA adoption across a broader range of partners. We have already come a long way from our first agreement in 2015: as of 2024, we support around 3,800 institutions through over 65 agreements.4 Widespread participation is essential to realising the full potential of TAs.
In an equitable open science future, no scholar should be left behind. We are committed to sharing our insights and advocating for TAs to expedite this transition. We invite an active dialogue with partners interested in supporting this transformative journey.
For more information and resources on OA agreements, visit the Springer Nature librarian website.
1 https://stories.springernature.com/oa-report-2023/
2 ibid.
3 https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Creating_new_pathways_the_Springer_Nature_and_Jisc_Transformative_Agreement/21196111?file=37576396
4 https://www.springernature.com/gp/librarians/open-research-for-librarians/open-access-agreements#c27355162; 4 https://www.springernature.com/gp/open-access-fact-sheet/17740280
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