The “read and publish” agreement between academic publisher Springer Nature and UK Universities was due for renewal by the end of 2022. Negotiations led by JISC were lengthy and a number of alternative proposals were considered by the sector. We are very pleased to report that UK universities and Springer Nature have agreed a three-year Read & Publish deal.
This agreement provides both continued ‘read’ access to, and unlimited open access publishing in, Springer Nature subscription journals. Kent authors can now take advantage of this deal and will be able to choose to publish open access at no additional cost.
The Read and Publish agreements that the library has with many publishers allow you to publish your articles Open Access without requiring further payment to the publisher. You don’t have to apply separately for an APC.
We evaluate and enter into agreements with publishers that will most benefit our researchers however we depend on JISC to negotiate these agreements on behalf of the HE sector and achieve the best deal for both ‘read’ access and publishing freely or at a discounted rate.
The agreement that has been reached represents a 4.46% reduction in current spend across the sector and has saved us money at Kent.
Key highlights of the Springer Nature read and publish deal
- Continuation of existing read access plus post cancellation rights. University of Kent students and staff retain access to all current subscribed content. All Palgrave titles are now included
- Unlimited Open Access publishing for Kent corresponding authors in Compact Springer journals
- Open access publishing for Kent corresponding authors in the high impact Nature research journals and Nature reviews. A national sector wide cap will apply. Modelling suggests the cap will be sufficient, but if the national cap is exceeded, Springer will allow our authors to add their author-accepted manuscripts to KAR with no embargo, enabling them to comply with funder requirements.
- Springer Nature’s Fully Open Access journals are not included in the agreement but we’ll receive a 15% discount on Article Processing Charges when publishing in any of these
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Rights retention exception. Springer Nature has agreed to alter their licence to publish so not to conflict with retention of IPR by institutions, funders or authors.
Next steps
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The sector will now work to implement the agreement, subject to successful contract discussions with Springer Nature. The new agreement is not yet live.
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We will add all journal titles included in this agreement to our Read and Publish journal search once Springer Nature make this information available to us.
- We’ll continue to monitor our existing Read and Publish agreements to make sure they are cost-effective and work with JISC on your behalf to set the requirements for future negotiations and open science more generally.
Contact and feedback
Email – researchsupport@kent.ac.uk