Springer Nature has released its fourth annual Open Access (OA) report providing a transparent, data-led[1], overview of progress made in OA publishing and access. Marking ten years since signing its first, pioneering transformative agreement (TAs), the report highlights how the company’s responsible approach continues to increase visibility and impact for its authors, while calling for greater industry collaboration to support a more inclusive and sustainable OA transition.
Key takeaways:
- Greater impact for authors – articles in Springer Nature’s full OA journals receive an average of 6.3 citations – higher than those from mixed model or pure OA publishers. Downloads of OA book and journal content rose by over 31% in 2024.
- Wider global reach – downloads of OA content increased by 21% in Lower Middle Income (LMIC) and 14% in Lower income countries (LIC) reflecting growing access for researchers worldwide.
- Transformative Agreements (TA) accelerating OA – Springer Nature’s TAs enabled 10 times more gold OA articles than those published outside of a TA – up from 7x in 2023. Since 2015, TAs have grown at average annual rate of 42%, now supporting authors from over 3,700 institutions globally.
Harsh Jegadeesan, Chief Publishing Officer at Springer Nature said:
“We are proud of the open access milestones we’ve reached and the role we play in helping to build a more open research ecosystem. But as the report shows, this global transformation is complex and requires responsible commitment from all stakeholders.
Our focus remains on ensuring that no researcher, institution, or country is left behind, while maintaining the reliability and trustworthiness of research so that scientists and innovators everywhere can build on knowledge to tackle the world’s most pressing challenges.”
The full report can be accessed here, along with the previous editions from 2023, 2022 and the fully OA report from 2021. Together with the publisher’s Annual Report, it reflects Springer Nature’s ongoing commitment to transparency and accountability in its publishing programme.
More information on Springer Nature’s wider commitment to OA and our full OA offerings can be found here.
