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Downloads of publishers’ open-access content were up by over 20 per cent last year
Academic publisher Springer Nature has revealed that 44 per cent of its primary research is now published with open access.
Last year the company published more than 183,000 journal articles free of charge to readers, according to its latest open-access report, published on 8 August.
But Harsh Jegadeesan, Springer Nature’s chief publishing officer, said there was more work to do on opening up research and its outputs.
“Greater steps need to be taken to ensure equal access and equal representation in research,” he said. “This remains a key commitment of ours, and a central focus of the report as we seek to further the discussion on how to ensure that the opportunities and benefits open access affords are available to all.”
The publisher is “investing strongly in technology and artificial intelligence, with a particular focus on protecting the integrity and trust of research,” in its push for more articles to be open access, Jegadeesan said.
Transformative deals in focus
Springer Nature’s transformative agreements—deals with institutions covering the costs of open-access publishing as a way of moving away from subscriptions—allowed seven times as many articles to be published with open access in 2023 than through authors themselves choosing open access, the report said.
Downloads of the publisher’s open-access book chapters and journal articles also went up by more than 20 per cent between 2022 and 2023, it said. The company published 918 open-access books last year.
The report highlighted some of Springer Nature’s actions to make more articles available with open access. Initiatives included expanding transformative agreements into Africa and the Americas, waiving €26 million of article-processing charges for authors less able to pay them, and enabling authors from low-income and low- and middle-income countries to publish in journals at no cost.
Jegadeesan added: “We are incredibly proud of the ways in which we are moving the dial for open access.”