| GENERAL INFORMATION | |
| Publisher | Springer Nature |
| Agreement ID | sn2025cdl |
| Agreement labeling | Springer Nature Transformative Agreement |
| Is the agreement document publicly available? | Yes |
| URL | Springer portfolio agreement: https://cdlib.org/services-groups/ collections/licensed_resources/redacted_licenses/ SN_Springer%20OA%20Publishing%202025-2027_Redacted.pdf Nature portfolio agreement: https://cdlib.org/services-groups/ |
| Agreement period | 1/1/2025 – 12/31/2027 |
| Consortia / Institution | California Digital Library (University of California) |
| Country | United States |
| COST | |
| How do the costs of the agreement relate to the previous agreement with the publisher? | Agreement costs within the range of the previous spending level |
| Comments on cost development | Costs are still within range of the previous level, but have increased modestly in response to higher publication volume. |
| Describe how the cost model has changed from the previous agreement (e.g., move from subscription to R&P / from capped to uncapped / from single APC payments to flat fee, etc.) | Cost model was largely simplified compared to the previous model, particularly on the Springer side – rather than a dynamic corridor of article publishing counts, there is a simpler +/- 3.5% cost corridor for library costs. The reading fee mechanism was recrafted to represent a cost that decreases as the rate of uptake of the OA option within the hybrid portfolio increases. No structural changes in the Nature side of the agreement. |
| Read-access costs
If the agreement includes read access to subscription content, is a split of the cost between read access and publishing services defined? |
Yes |
| If a split of the cost between read access and publishing services is defined, what percentage of the overall agreement cost relates to read access? | 5%-20% |
| PUBLISHING-RELATED TERMS | |
| Publication output
What is the approximate number of annual corresponding author publications from your institution/consortium with the publisher (in closed, hybrid and fully OA journals)? |
2800 |
| Is the agreement’s provision for OA publishing capped (e.g., limited to a specific number of articles per year) or uncapped? | Uncapped |
| Coverage
Are all journals relevant to your affiliated authors (i.e., journals in which you expect them to publish) eligible for OA publishing under the agreement? |
Yes |
| Are APC-based full open access journals covered by the agreement? | Yes, alongside hybrid titles |
| Are journals operating under other business models (S2O, Diamond OA, etc.) covered by the agreement? | Yes |
| Article types
Eligible article types |
Original research articles, Review articles, Proceedings, Brief communications, Short reports, Continuing education, Case reports |
| Risk sharing
What risk-sharing mechanisms exist in cases of exceeding or not reaching the anticipated number of OA publications under the agreement? |
A maximum/minimum payment corridor |
| Comments on publishing-related terms | Springer titles are eligible for full support for OA publishing under the multipayer model (see workflow comments, below). Nature Research and Nature full OA titles are eligible for a $1,000 subvention only, and must pay the remaining amount to Springer Nature to publish OA. |
| READ ACCESS-RELATED TERMS | |
| Coverage of read access
If the agreement includes read access to subscription content, is access to all relevant journals required by your users covered by the agreement? |
Yes |
| Perpetual access
If the agreement includes read access to subscription content, are perpetual access (post cancellation/termination) rights included? |
Yes |
| If perpetual access rights to subscription content is included, are there associated fees (for continued access to the platform, local hosting, data delivery, etc.)? | Yes |
| OA WORKFLOW | |
| Author workflow and verification
The date for articles’ eligibility is based on: |
Acceptance date |
| Describe the mechanisms used by the publisher for matching authors with an eligible institution: | PIDs (Ringgold, ROR, ORCID, etc.), Text-matching, Email domain verification, IP addresses |
| How do consortia or institutions verify author eligibility and approve OA funding? | Via publisher’s dashboard or third-party platform (pre-publication) |
| Does the agreement include mechanisms to correct mistakenly approved, missed, or not approved publications (e.g., retrospective OA conversion of closed articles or refunding paid APCs)? | Yes |
| Does the publisher’s reporting on publications satisfy the needs of your institution (frequency, metadata fields, data quality, etc.)? | Yes |
| May authors be charged additional publication fees (such as page charges, article development charges, etc.)? | No |
| How would you assess the practical implementation of the agreement? | Ok |
| Comments on workflows | The agreement follows a “multipayer model” under which financial support from the UC Libraries is supplemented with author contributions from research funds. Authors without available research funds for publication may receive full coverage of the open access fees, depending on the portfolio.
For corresponding authors publishing in Springer imprints (including Adis, Biomed Central, Palgrave Macmillan, Springer, Springer Open, and Academic journals on Nature.com), the UC libraries will automatically pay the first $1,000 of the APC. Authors who do not have research funds to pay the remainder can request full funding of the APC. For corresponding authors publishing in Nature titles (including Nature Research journals, Nature fully OA journals, e.g. Scientific Reports, Nature Communications, Nature partner journals, and fully OA Academic journals on Nature.com), the UC libraries will pay the first $1,000 of the APC. Authors who publish open access in Nature titles, including both hybrid and fully OA journals, will be responsible for paying the remainder due on each APC. For both portfolios, authors indicate their affiliation in the Springer Nature manuscript submission portal. Springer Nature also matches authors to institutions using author email addresses and IP address. Authors see messaging specific to the agreement in the author portal and select the appropriate publishing option. Approvals are managed in an institutional dashboard, with an automatic approval process currently implemented for fully OA journals and some hybrid journals. |
| PUBLISHING LICENSES | |
| Author’s licenses
Open access license types included |
CC BY preference, exceptions allowed |
| Has the author workflow been customized to direct authors to a certain license (e.g., by making the option for CC BY the preselected default)? | Yes |
| If the agreement covers licenses more restrictive than CC BY, do the License to Publish agreements (LtPs) offered to authors differ from the publisher’s standard LtP? | No |
| In addition to the OA publishing provision, does the agreement include mechanisms to make author accepted manuscripts open access? | No |
Request contact to the licensee: contact@esac-initiative.org
