By fuelling the growth of OA, TAs also increase access to scholarly content. Approximately 70% of the usage from an OA article published under a TA comes from ‘anonymous users’; individuals who accessed the content from an IP address range not associated with a subscribing university. This indicates that the content is reaching a broader and more diverse readership. (Fig. 4)

Figure 4: Comparison of anonymous vs recognised downloads under TAs

Geographically, anonymous usage constitutes the majority of total usage for articles published under our TAs. This trend is observed across all continents, with particularly striking growth in Asia, where anonymous usage increased by over 1560% from 2020 to 2023. Africa also saw anonymous usage grow by 866% over the same period. This shows that TAs are diversifying readership beyond those countries and institutions that traditionally had access under a subscription model.

While growing usage of OA content is expected, given the increasing volume of articles published under TAs, what stands out is the substantial impact of TAs on overall usage. In 2023, articles published under TAs accounted for 78% of our total hybrid OA usage, underscoring the critical role TAs play in expanding the reach and accessibility of research.

Figure 5: Percentage change in anonymous usage from 2020 to 2023 by IP continent for articles under TAs

Source: Springer Nature data

Table 5: Percentage change in anonymous usage from 2020 to 2023 by IP continent for articles under TAs