Publishing policies

We believe that the most impactful research papers should be made available as soon as possible after acceptance.

We achieve this by offering ‘accelerated article preview’ for Nature and selected other journals. This allows a typeset version of the accepted article to be published online within several days of acceptance. The manuscript has not been copy edited, and is replaced online by the version of record when that becomes available.

We believe that the content we publish should be fully accessible to all users, regardless of physical abilities.

We achieve this by ensuring our websites meet mandated accessibility standards, and supporting machine readability to empower third-party tools that further aid access.

We believe that it is vital to protect our authors against infringement of intellectual property, while also considering the sensitivities and concerns of the research community.

We achieve this by proactively identifying, monitoring and taking action against potential instances of infringement to ensure that any threats to the intellectual property rights of our authors are _targeted, disrupted and, where possible, closed down. Any concerns about online piracy or physical counterfeiting can be reported to our anti-piracy team by emailing us at anti-piracy@springernature.com.  

We believe that the version of record is the most useful and accurate version of a research paper, but that our authors should be permitted to use their accepted manuscript in line with funder policies.

We achieve this by applying embargoes that comply with all relevant funder mandates regarding the availability of  accepted manuscripts. 

We believe that it is important that, as a global publisher, we take account of the local rules and regulations in the countries in which we distribute our published content.

We achieve this by supporting researchers in complying with the rules and regulations that apply locally to the place where they do their research; working to minimize the impact of local laws on our central duty to ensure that our authors’ content reaches the widest possible global audience and that their ability to participate in international scientific endeavours is not restricted; maximising access to content while complying with local regulations and international sanctions; and remaining neutral with regards to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.    

We believe that authors should retain copyright of their book manuscript irrespective of imprint and book type and receive clear credit for, and ownership of, their work.

We achieve this by working to harmonize book contracts across publishing divisions and book types. Most book and chapter authors will then sign a broad exclusive Licence to Publish for their contributions.

We believe that authors should retain copyright of their research manuscripts and receive clear credit for, and ownership of, their work.

We achieve this by requiring authors to sign a broad exclusive Licence to Publish for original research papers for many journals, and we are moving towards implementing this for all journals. Some content types (such as review articles in selected journals or feature articles by scientist authors in Scientific American) require a copyright assignment due to the high degree of editorial involvement in their creation.

We believe that it should be quick and easy for readers and librarians to see the changes to the content they are reading such as corrections or retractions, and to access valuable additional metadata such as ORCID iDs and funder information.  

We achieve this by participating in Crossmark and embedding their button and link on our content pages.

We believe that Springer Nature should be compliant with applicable data privacy legislation and use data appropriately to provide the best service we can.

We achieve this by aligning our processes, data management and controls to comply with current legislative and regulatory requirements.

We believe that we need to invest in education and scientific research in places where it’s needed but where people might not be able to afford it.

We achieve this by working globally with organizations such as Research4Life and CGIAR to support their initiatives in reducing the scientific knowledge gap between industrialized countries and the developing world.

We believe that all the content we publish should be easily identifiable and that there should be a persistent link to its location on the Internet.

We achieve this by assigning a DOI to every suitable piece of content and including the DOIs of referenced articles in the bibliographic reference lists. Reference lists are now openly available.

We believe that connecting authors’ works with relevant researchers, via our own or empowered third-party services, is a core function of publishing.

We achieve this by ensuring that our content is readily discoverable in key discovery services (for example, Google, Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus etc) and via support for machine readability (e.g. Linked Open Data, APIs etc). We also connect all referred content via bi-directional online links.

We believe that research benefits from diversity. We aim to foster equity, diversity and inclusion within our internal practices and in published content, embody these values in all our editorial activities and to support and promote these values in the research community.

We achieve this by setting out expectations of diversity for conferences organised by Springer Nature and working to improve the gender and geographic diversity of commissioned authors, peer reviewers and editorial board members. Nature Conferences has made specific commitments, which you can read here.

We believe that the publication requirements of our authors are best served via the availability of, and choice offered by, a mixed model of publishing. This allows authors to publish in the journal of their choice while meeting their funder requirements.

We achieve this by enabling our authors, where funding permits, to publish open access within a range of subscription journals. When authors take up this option these articles are then completely excluded from the calculation of the journal price.

We believe that to allow for the widest reach of our content and the most appropriate local support for our products and customers, we should work with committed partners.

We achieve this by working globally with resellers and agents to reach a broader group of customers and readers. This allows us to facilitate local requirements and create an extended presence around the globe. We require our partners to commit to our Business Partner Code of Conduct, joining us in reaffirming our commitments to respect the laws and regulations that impact our business and to act in a sustainable and socially responsible way.

We believe that driving open research is of great and increasing importance to advancing discovery.

We achieve this by offering over 630 fully open access journals, an open access option on over 1,700 journals, and having a liberal self-archiving policy, which permits authors to self-archive their accepted manuscript shortly after first online publication.

We believe that ORCID’s vision of “a world where all who participate in research, scholarship, and innovation are uniquely identified and connected to their contributions across disciplines, borders, and time” is an inspirational goal that we should strongly support. 

We achieve this by using ORCID’s APIs to link our publishing systems to their database, supporting and encouraging authors to obtain an ORCID iD, and automatically adding the papers that they publish with us to their ORCID record. 

We believe that Springer Nature should not take political positions and should not support political parties or endorse political candidates.

We achieve this by being politically neutral (which includes not donating to political parties or endorsing politically-driven boycotts) while respecting the editorial independence of the media in respect of our journalist content. This means that while editorial content in Springer Nature publications might sometimes take a political position, it should not be seen as a reflection or otherwise of the company’s position.  Editorial content is not influenced by the company and vice versa.

We believe that it is our duty to support preservation of the scientific record for future generations.

We achieve this by working with one or more of the following long-term digital preservation services: the National Science Library Chinese Academy of Sciences, CLOCKSS, the Koninklijke Bibliotheek e-Depot and Portico. A copy of every printed journal and book is deposited with the British Library, the US Library of Congress and the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek depending on the origin of the title. We also retain confidential information about the peer review process, and manuscript versions, in our manuscript tracking systems.

We believe that third parties should be able to reproduce material from our publications and online products as part of another publication, product or origin at a conference, presentation or app.

We achieve this by enabling rapid, simple implementation of third-party permissions through the Rightslink® system (available on the article/chapter level web page) or copyright.com. Also, we offer translation right sales globally.

We believe that as a progressive publisher, we should support authors who wish to share their research on scholarly collaboration networks.

We achieve this by encouraging authors to share articles using open access or SharedIt links. We ask that intellectual property rights are respected, and that systems are used that maintain links to the scientific record while also allowing us, as the publisher, to track and report on usage to relevant authors and librarians. 

We believe that researchers should be able to share research content easily, while respecting applicable licensing and copyright terms and conditions.

We achieve this by enabling SharedIt for authors and subscribers. SharedIt creates view-only links to full-text subscription research articles that can be posted anywhere, including on social media platforms, scholarly collaboration networks, author websites and in institutional repositories. We are running pilots for books sharing, and, of course, all open access content can be immediately shared without limitation. 

We believe that the subscription model remains relevant as it is the best way to provide sustainable and widespread access to journals with significant editorial investment and very low acceptance rates and to ensure that researchers without funding still have a route to publish.

We achieve this by providing a range of journals to suit the individual needs and preferences of our customers and we will continue to sustain subscription journals for the foreseeable future.

We believe that the content we publish should be available for further research and analysis.

We achieve this by having generous re-use terms that allow for text and data mining (TDM) and the production of derivative works. As tools improve, Springer Nature strives to make TDM as simple as possible for researchers. Next to a large variety of APIs we have developed Springer Nature SciGraph – a Linked Open Data platform that collates information from across the research landscape such as bibliographic metadata in relation to people, places, organizations, grants, funders, conferences.

We believe that the content we publish should be available to the widest possible audience.

We achieve this by working closely with librarians to provide cost-effective access to their patrons, and complying with the vast majority of funder policies for green and gold open access.