What’s next for Open Access at Springer Nature?

We remain committed to pushing the boundaries of open access (OA) through:

collaboration – working with our global partners and industry bodies to be an active voice in the OA landscape;

innovation – via our investments in technology, solutions and services to support the growth and development of OA;

working with partners – to tailor our approaches to their needs and building on the heritage of our leading OA brands such as BMC, which this year celebrates 25 years of OA innovation.

All stakeholders are part of the OA transition and future. By continuing to drive progress across these three pillars, we are confident in our ability to continue to drive OA adoption globally and deliver on our vision of a more inclusive open research ecosystem.

Using technology to support OA growth whilst ensuring integrity

We are investing in tools that streamline the publishing process, enhance research quality, and improve accessibility for authors and readers alike. By the end of 2024, we had 90+ live AI-enabled processes and solutions in place across the research publication journey, making it more efficient, reliable and  faster for our communities.

Building next-generation platforms to make publication easier

These platforms are helping us deliver a more seamless publishing experience while ensuring the infrastructure behind OA remains robust and future ready.

Snapp – our award-winning next generation peer review platform has, since launch, supported 12+ million authors, handled 2+ million submissions, published 390,000+ articles, onboarded 1,180 journals, and collaborated with 78,000+ editors across 162 countries.

Springer Nature Link - our new unified platform that offers search and discovery, personalised reading and funding recommendations, and a clear path to publication. In 2024, Springer Nature Link saw 20+ million active users each month, and 185+ million monthly downloads.

Supporting more open ways to share, removing barriers to participating

In 2024, we introduced a unified open code policy and simplified protocols to help authors share their work more easily and transparently. Over 80% of articles in key journals included data availability statements and open peer review pilots expanded across disciplines. Preprint adoption also continued to rise, supported by our integration with platforms like Research Square, which now hosts 250,000+ preprints.

Through initiatives like our reproducibility pilot studies and the annual  State of Open Data  report, we continue to listen to our community and adapt to their evolving needs. Latest data shows clear signs that we are nearing a global tipping point in open sharing.

Supporting trust in science and the integrity of research remains our central focus

We work with over 180,000 editors and around one million independent peer reviewers who share our commitment to rigour and excellence. Ensuring that the research we publish is reliable, trustworthy and can be built on by scientists and innovators is our highest priority.

As the research landscape evolves with the impact of new technologies, we are focused on transparently communicating our investment in maintaining the academic record. More on our commitment, actions and retraction data can be found here.