As with the Elsevier agreement, UK institutions are seeking to combine the two Jisc agreements – Compact and Nature journals under the one transitional agreement and include the Palgrave titles.

The next agreement should allow UK authors to publish open access in Springer Nature titles for no additional cost to themselves or their departments, as well as provide access to all research within the portfolio.

Why Springer Nature negotiations matter

Open research, and open access to research publications, is a priority for UK universities and research funders.

UK universities and research funders are committed to full and immediate open access and to transitioning away from paywalled access.

Springer Nature is the second largest publisher of UK research. Expenditure by subscribing institutions with Springer Nature is over €20 million and this excludes spend on publishing fees for full open access (OA) titles.

It is now necessary to negotiate an agreement that brings the costs of both reading and full and immediate open access publishing in line with other agreements and in line with funder policies and sector requirements.

Priorities for the agreement with Springer Nature

The principles that guide the negotiations: 

1. Cost constraint, and ultimately cost reduction
2. Transitional, breaking from legacy publishing models and ensuring a greater proportion of research is made Open Access
3. Compliant, with funder mandates and policy on Open Research
4. Transparent, to articulate what public money pays for and why
5. Effective, improving the workflows of publishers, researchers and libraries 

The negotiations are sector-led and governed by the UUK Jisc content negotiation strategy group and the Jisc content expert group.

Latest information on the Springer Nature negotiations can be found here.