Springer Nature has today announced its latest transformative agreement (TA), with Italy’s National Research Council (CNR), and also announces the renewal of TAs with the Austrian Academic Library Consortium in Austria and the Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU). With the first TA in Egypt with Government support, and its first in Canada and Latin America, announced in the last two months, Springer Nature continues to demonstrate its commitment to driving forward sustainable open research for all, across all economies. This enables researchers from over 2,650 affiliated institutions to publish open access, double that of any other publisher.  

Springer Nature’s TA with CNR – Italy’s largest public research institute – is the publisher’s second in Italy. This three-year agreement will see authors in CNR’s 88 research institutes be able to publish OA in over 2,300 Springer, Adis and Palgrave Hybrid journals, as well as having full access to all subscription journal content. 

Speaking on the agreement with CNR, Caroline Nevison, Director, Commercial Transition OA at Springer Nature said: “We remain focused on facilitating the OA transition for a growing number of institutions, supporting academic collaboration, discoverability and usability at scale. We are delighted to extend that commitment across Italy with our new agreement with CNR, a partner closely aligned with our principles of advancing scientific discovery. Through this agreement we will be able to better support Italian researchers and their research outputs through the advancement of OA publishing.” 

Alongside the new agreement in Italy, the start of 2022 has also seen the renewal of agreements in Austria and the Netherlands. The agreement with the Austrian Academic Library Consortium in Austria is entering its seventh year with an extension to 2023, and includes the addition of nine new institutions. The agreement with the Association of Universities (VSNU), Netherlands, now enters its eight year with an extension through 2022. 

Dagmar Laging, Vice President, Institutional Sales Europe at Springer added: “Since Springer Nature pioneered its first TA in 2014, the agreements have proven themselves to be a key component in driving the sustainable transition to OA, and in some regions have enabled country level flips. These deals continue to demonstrate the shared global goal and commitment to open science through the sustainable promotion of open access. We are delighted to be able to continue to work with our longstanding and new partners to deepen this commitment to a truly open future, one which we believe is key to advancing scientific discovery and delivering real life benefits for all.”

Through outreach such as TAs with global partners, Springer Nature continues to support all authors regardless of discipline, location or funding, to publish OA. The publisher’s 17 national agreements, which alongside its institutional deals, now support researchers from over 2,650 affiliated institutions to publish OA, enabling an expected 41,400+ OA articles to be published a year, 10% more than any other publisher. Last year, the publisher was the first to immediately publish one million gold open access primary research and review articles, supporting nearly 2.5 million authors in making their research OA. 

More on Springer Nature’s TAs can be found here, with further information on the publisher’s commitment to open science and its wider principles available here.

Three-year read and publish agreement signed with Canadian Research Knowledge Network 

IOP Publishing (IOPP) and the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN) have signed an unlimited open access (OA) agreement. The three-year ‘read and publish’ deal offers authors affiliated with 45 CRKN member organisations unlimited OA publishing in IOPP’s hybrid and fully OA journals. The reading component of the agreement provides ongoing access to all of IOPP’s fully owned and partner journals. 

The agreement is IOPP’s first transformative agreement for North America. The society publisher now has transformative agreements with 242 institutions in 14 countries. 

Julian Wilson, sales and marketing director at IOPP comments: “We see a significant increase in the number of articles published OA in other countries throughout Europe and the Middle East where we have similar agreements in place. We’re looking forward to expanding the reach and visibility of research in North America by making the process of publishing as simple as possible for authors.”   

IOPP research shows that OA content is downloaded 80% more than paywalled content and cited 30% more, demonstrating the substantial benefits to publishing OA.  

“Working on behalf of our members, CRKN’s priorities continue to be increasing sustainable, cost neutral, open access options for researchers affiliated with CRKN member institutions at no additional cost to the author,” comments CRKN Executive Director, Clare Appavoo.  

“I am pleased that we were able to achieve these goals in partnership with IOP Publishing. This agreement will increase access to the content published in IOPP journals as well as the open access output of physicists in Canada,” adds Appavoo. 

Over 400 institutions in 34 countries are now participating in The Company of Biologists’ Read & Publish Open Access initiative. We have signed agreements with library consortia in Australia, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Spain, the UK and the USA. We have also signed a landmark agreement with EIFL (Electronic Information for Libraries) which enables researchers in 30 developing and transition economy countries to publish Open Access articles in our hybrid journals without paying an article processing charge (APC).

The success of our Read & Publish initiative has led to a significant increase in the proportion of Open Access (OA) research content in our hybrid subscription journals, which were the first from any publisher to be afforded Transformative Journal status by Plan S.

In 2021, OA research content increased by 10% in Development, 12% in Journal of Cell Science and 15% in Journal of Experimental Biology. This meant that all journals exceeded the Transformative Journal target for OA growth of 5%.

From 2022, institutions can also choose to include our fully OA journals – Disease Models & Mechanisms and Biology Open – in their Read & Publish agreements.

Claire Moulton, Publisher at The Company of Biologists, says:

“We have a long-standing commitment to OA and a track record of innovation. We were one of the first not-for-profit publishers to offer cost-neutral and uncapped Read & Publish agreements and our journals were the first from any publisher to be afforded Transformative Journal status. Together, these initiatives are already producing great results. Corresponding authors at over 400 institutions across five continents can now publish OA research articles without paying an APC and this has helped us to exceed our Transformative Journal targets in 2021. We look forward to continuing to work closely with our library partners and authors to increase the proportion of OA research content in our hybrid journals further and to meet the ambitious growth targets we have set ourselves in 2022 and beyond.”

Richard Grove, Commercial Manager at The Company of Biologists, says:

“Our Read & Publish initiative has been a big success and we have received wonderful feedback from authors, librarians and library consortia around the world. Most recently we have signed a three-year agreement with the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL), and over 35 UK institutions have already confirmed their participation in our 2022-2024 renewal agreement with Jisc, including all that participated in the 2020-2022 agreement. In addition, we are excited that librarians can now choose to include our two fully Open Access journals in their Read & Publish agreements.”

The Public Library of Science (PLOS) today announced a new partnership with the Einstein Foundation Award for Promoting Quality in Research.

The Einstein Foundation Award will honor researchers, institutions, collaborations, and organizations that, among other things:

• have made substantial contributions to fostering research integrity through outstanding measures that increase the quality and reliability of research, e.g. by improving transparency, access to research results (‘Open Science’), overcoming the fragmentation of research (‘Team science’);
• have delivered groundbreaking research that identifies opportunities for improving research practice, have generated evidence for potential interventions, and have developed metrics and policies that incentivize the adoption of best research practices;
• have significantly contributed to increasing the diversity of research by taking into view aspects such as gender, race/ethnicity, geography, career stage, etc.;

“By establishing a global award to honor established researchers as well as early career researchers, collaborations and institutions, the Einstein Foundation Berlin is making an important statement: rigor, reliability, and transparency are to be recognized and rewarded as they directly influence increased quality in research,” said Dr Veronique Kiermer, Chief Scientific Officer, PLOS. “We are excited to contribute to global awareness of this award and encourage all interested parties to nominate and/or apply in the relevant categories.”

“We are proud and honoured to have PLOS – a true and original pioneer of Open Science – as another outstanding partner at our side,” said Professor Ulrich Dirnagl, Award Secretary and Founding Director, QUEST Center for Responsible Research at the Berlin Institute of Health. “Together we aim to stimulate activities that foster research quality and to raise awareness among scientists, institutions, funding bodies, and policymakers.”

“We are especially pleased to partner so soon with an organization based in Berlin,” said Dr Anke Beck, PLOS Regional Director for Publishing Development, Europe. “PLOS GmbH is a new entity and we look forward to engaging with the Einstein Foundation Berlin, and other European organizations, at a local level, and helping to amplify such mission-driven initiatives to a global audience when we can.”

PLOS is a longtime advocate for quality in research and is well known for developing policies, standards, features, and encouraging behaviors that support a more rigorous open research ecosystem. These activities all enhance the quality and reliabilityof research, and, consequently, trust in research.

The Einstein Foundation award website contains all the details, including the criteria, categories, eligibility, and a list of the jury and prior winners. The deadline for applications and nominations is April 30th, 2022 at 10:00 pm UTC. Winners will be announced in December, 2022.