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Open Access & Institutional Repository: Springer

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Our current publishing agreement with Springer ends 31/12/22. A new agreement covering 2023 is being negotiated/evaluated.

Update 22/02/23: the Springer agreement is still being nationally negotiated, with free read and gratis publishing access offered during the negotiation period. Please contact eprints@soton.ac.uk if you have any questions.

Please include a rights retention statement in the Acknowledgements of any new submissions to Springer Nature hybrid journals to enable open access via self-archiving in a repository if an agreement is not available. Hybrid/subscription journals contain both open access and paywalled content. If your funder does not supply rights retention/prior assignment of rights wording, please use: “For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission” 

This agreement is available to current University staff and students; visitors are not eligible.

The Jisc-negotiated Springer Compact Read & Publish agreement is open to all University of Southampton corresponding authors and ends 31/12/22.

  • Includes original research, review, brief communication and continuing education article types in Springer Open Choice journals (subscription journals with a paid open access option).

The agreement does not include fully open access journals or most Nature branded journals. If your article acknowledges UKRI or Wellcome Trust funding and you would like to publish in a fully open access journals, please complete our APC application form prior to submitting your article to ensure we can cover the cost.

Next steps for corresponding authors

1. Submit your research to your journal of choice

View a list of included Springer journals. Please note that open access publication via this agreement is only available for journals on the list.

View journals

2. Identify yourself as an eligible author

There are three ways Springer can recognise your eligibility for open access publication. When your article is accepted, be sure to identify yourself in at least one of the following ways on the MyPublication form:

  • Select University of Southampton from the dropdown list
  • Please use your University of Southampton email address
  • Please complete the form using a computer connected to the University network (on campus on using the GlobalProtect VPN)

3. Institution’s approval

The Open Research team in the Library will check and approve your eligibility without causing any delays to the manuscript publication process. We do this by approving your article on our institutional Springer Compact dashboard.

Which article types are covered by this agreement?

  • Original Paper: Standard article, usually presenting new results; articles published under this article type may also be referred to as Original Research, Original Article, Original Paper or Research Paper.
  • Review Paper: Standard article, interpreting previously published results.
  • Brief Communication: Short article submitted for rapid publication that exhibits the same structure as a standard article.
  • Continuing Education: Article forming integral part of further education (usually medical).

The current agreement applies to articles accepted by 31/12/2022.

Questions? Contact us at eprints@soton.ac.uk

Springer Nature read & publish: negotiations for 2023

Our current Springer Read & Publish agreement, covering subscription (read) access and open access publishing at no cost to our corresponding authors, expires on 31st December 2022.  

The Read & Publish national negotiations for 2023 include both Springer and Nature branded journals. This is a change to our current agreement which includes publishing access only to Springer journals. Reaching an agreement is important to make it easier for our authors to publish their work open access, as well as continuing to read all of Springer Nature’s content. The deal needs to be affordable for our sector, which is already under financial strain.  Affordability is critical, given the hyper-inflated open access publishing costs charged by Springer Nature (9500 Euro per APC in some Nature journals). 

The negotiations are led by a Jisc taskforce, in collaboration with UK universities. The negotiations are complex as they include Nature branded titles, and we are hopeful that an affordable, fair agreement will be reached. However, we cannot guarantee that a deal can be reached and this scenario would affect our read access and open access publishing within all Springer Nature journals. 

Jisc have issued a consultation, and we will liaise with Faculty on our institutional response to Jisc. The negotiations will continue throughout January-February 2023, and if an agreement is reached it will be backdated to 1st January 2023. 

Please contact eprints@soton.ac.uk with any questions.

What would we keep read access to?  

Springer Nature are currently suggesting that read access would be maintained during January-February 2023, whilst negotiations continue. Our current agreement with Springer Nature includes (post-cancellation) perpetual access to some key journal titles. We would retain access to much of the historical content we currently subscribe to, even if we do not sign a new agreement for 2023. The LibKey Nomad browser plug-in makes accessing both subscription and legal open access content easy. 

How would we access other Springer Nature journal content?  

Post-cancellation access would not include new publications, but our staff and students will be able to quickly obtain articles using the University Library Document Delivery service if they are not available via a legal open access route. 

How would we publish in Springer Nature journals?   

You will fulfil the University of Southampton Open Access Policy by uploading the Author Accepted Manuscripts of all peer-reviewed journal articles and peer-reviewed conference articles to Pure at the point of acceptance for publication.  

Publishing in fully open access journals 

  • If you are funded by UKRI, Wellcome Trust and CRUK: the Library holds funds from these funders to pay reasonable Article Processing Charges, APCs (up to £4000) in fully open access journals; please apply before submission http://go.soton.ac.uk/asc 

  • If you do not have a UKRI, Wellcome Trust or CRUK grant: we do not have a central University fund for open access, but you may be able to pay APCs from your own funds 

Publishing in hybrid journals: self archiving 

Hybrid journals contain a mix of open access and subscription content 

  • If we do not have an open access publishing agreement with Springer Nature for 2023, please publish under the traditional subscription model and self-archive the Accepted Manuscript version of your article in Pure. This will not incur an open access publishing fee. 

  • Your funder (including UKRI and Wellcome Trust) may require you to include a rights retention statement in the acknowledgements section of your paper on submission: “For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission”. This prior assignment of rights allows the Author Accepted Manuscript to be made openly available from an institutional repository with no publisher-mandated embargo. We recommend all authors, regardless of funder, include this statement, which is supported by many publishers. However, please be aware that Springer Nature are putting up barriers to prevent authors asserting their choice by refusing to accept the rights retention statement, which may mean your article will not meet your funder open access requirements. 

  • You will fulfil the University of Southampton Open Access Policy by uploading the Author Accepted Manuscripts of all peer-reviewed journal articles and peer-reviewed conference articles to Pure at the point of acceptance.  

Page updated 19/12/22