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Negotiations with Springer Nature: No-deal Situation

For a year, swissuniversities has been negotiating with Springer Nature on a new agreement for reading access and open access publishing options in Springer Nature's portfolios. The negotiations could not be successfully concluded by the end of December of 2025. Springer Nature has so far not been willing to submit an offer that complies with the negotiation mandate. The goal of a further step in the transformation towards open access could not be achieved to the extent desired by swissuniversities.

The rectors of the Swiss higher education institutions are closely monitoring the negotiations. It is a priority of swissuniversities to reach a good agreement at a fair price. The past offers by Springer Nature contain interesting elements and incremental improvements compared to the 2023–2025 contract, yet international comparisons show that there is still potential for better conditions. 

As both sides remain interested in concluding an agreement, negotiations will continue in the new year.  

Open Access strategy sets out objectives

The recently revised Open Access strategy states that Swiss higher education institutions are committed to ensuring the financial sustainability of academic publishing and stabilise reasonable price levels. The constant growth in publication costs at the major publishing houses is fundamentally criticised.

With the negotiations with major academic publishers, swissuniversities is pursuing the goal of facilitating open access to research results and making scholarly publications financed with public funds freely accessible on the Internet. swissuniversities supports this paradigm shift through a fundamental transformation towards Open Science in the negotiations with the major scholarly publishers.

Research and teaching will not be impaired due to prepared measures

In view of the current political uncertainties, particularly at the international level, the Swiss higher education institutions attach great importance to the stability of the academic system. swissuniversities is committed to optimising the framework conditions for Swiss education, research, and innovation – including by ensuring the effective and efficient use of public funds. After carefully weighing up the various interests, the Swiss higher education institutions have come to the conclusion that the latest offer submitted by Springer Nature cannot be accepted.

In anticipation, the libraries have prepared measures to mitigate the impact of a no-deal situation. Experience has shown that with good preparation and corresponding services, a no-deal situation may lead to restrictions and additional work, but that research and teaching are not significantly impaired. 

In order to keep the no-deal situation as short as possible and to conclude the best possible agreement with Springer Nature, the Delegation Open Science has adopted the following recommendations to the higher education institutions:

  • Do not use central funds for publication fees
  • Consider alternatives to Springer Nature
  • Make publications available in Open Access as secondary publications 
  • Editors should advocate for the Swiss research community
  • Review activities for Springer Nature should be reconsidered

The negotiations for Open Access with major academic publishers are of great importance to the promotion of Open Science. This paradigm shift is jointly supported by the higher education institutions. swissuniversities is grateful to the research community for its willingness to pursue this path together and to support the no-deal situation with Springer Nature. A joint approach and the solidarity of the research community in Switzerland is of central importance in this important issue for the entire higher education landscape.

 

Update from 9 July 2025: Nature Branded Quota for 2025 exhausted

This year’s Open Access publication quota for Nature Branded Research journals was reached in early July 2025. This means that researchers from participating institutions can no longer publish their scientific articles in Open Access under the existing consortium agreement until further notice. They are asked to contact their institution to discuss alternative options. A follow-up agreement with Springer Nature is currently being negotiated.

Update from 17 May 2023: Nature Branded quota for 2023 has been reached

In the agreement with Springer Nature, a quota of 78 articles for open access publications in Nature Branded was set for 2023. Last week, the 78th article was published, and the quota has thus been reached. This means that, until the end of the year, the costs for open access publications in Nature Research journals will no longer be covered by the Springer Nature contract. Researchers can contact their institution to discuss the alternative funding options available for their publications.

At the end of the year, we will be able to assess whether this quota now covers about 50% of the total publication output, as was estimated in the 2022 Springer Nature Deal.

Update from 31 January 2023: swissuniversities and Springer Nature have concluded a second Open Access agreement

swissuniversities and Springer Nature have concluded a second Open Access agreement, which came into force on January 1st, 2023.

The agreement with Springer Nature on the two portfolios Springer Compact and Nature Branded is valid until 31 December 2025. In the Springer Compact portfolio, all publications can be published Open Access as before, with the increasing article quota taking into account the steadily growing number of publications. In Nature Branded, authors can now publish Open Access in all Nature Research journals, although only a limited article quota is available here. This will cover around 50% of publications in 2023, around 55% in 2024 and around 60% in 2025.

The agreement can be viewed on the homepage of the Consortium of Swiss University Libraries and the communication of January 31, 2023 here.

Update from 12 October 2022: Read & Publish agreement with Springer Nature 2023-2025

After careful consideration of all options, swissuniversities has decided to consider Springer Nature's offer for the Springer Compact / Nature Branded portfolios and the corresponding Read & Publish contract, but to reject the offer for the Gold Open Access portfolio.

This pragmatic approach – especially in view of the current geopolitical situation – guarantees stability for the institutions and the inclusion of a publishing component at Nature Branded takes Switzerland an important step further towards the vision formulated in the Open Access strategy. At Springer Compact, the transformation will continue by further increasing the article quota and shifting funds from the reading component at Springer Compact to the publishing component at Nature Branded. The offer for Gold Open Access, on the other hand, was rejected as it did not sufficiently meet the objectives set in the negotiating mandate.

The offers are now with the mandating institutions for signature. Information on the results of the negotiations will be made available as soon as the contracts are signed.

Update from 2 March 2022

Conclusion of the negotiations in 2021 coincided with the start of preparations for the next round of negotiations, and the plenary assembly of swissuniversities approved an updated negotiation mandate on February 3rd, 2022, which ties in with the previous negotiation objectives.

Update from 12 November 2021

As announced in August, the allocation for articles included in the contract with Springer Nature has now been reached. This means that, up to the end of the year, researchers from the participating institutions can no longer publish their articles for free via Open Access. Researchers may approach their institutions to discuss the alternatives available. A new allocation for free Open Access articles will apply again from January 2022.

Update from 25 August 2021

After 20 months, it is clear that the agreement with Springer Nature has been very well received. The researchers from the participating institutions are publishing a great deal of material, which is a good sign on the journey towards 100% Open Access for 2024. However, this also means that, contrary to expectations, the allocation for the contractually agreed articles for 2021 will not be sufficient through to the end of the year, and the maximum limit for included articles will probably be reached in October 2021. A new allocation is available again for 2022, so articles can be published under the contract once more from January 2022 at the latest without any additional APC costs.

Related links

The agreement for 2020-2022 is publicly accessible and can be found on the website of the Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries.

You can find further information on the scope of the agreement at  www.springer.com/OAforSwitzerland.

Press release of July 2020 on the conclusion of the first round of negotiations.