Springer Nature reveals 'bold' new peer review platform Snapp

Springer Nature has unveiled a “bold” new project to build the next generation in peer review platforms, Snapp.

Being designed in-house and in stages, adapting to user feedback as part of its ongoing development, Springer Nature’s Article Processing Platform “puts editors, authors and reviewers firmly at the centre”, the company said.

Snapp aims to improve the publishing process and provide a more agile response to the growth in Open Access (OA) and its roll-out marks a key investment in the company’s future publishing, Springer said. 

The platform has now supported over one million submissions, 75% of which were OA. Since initial introduction in 2019, Snapp has supported over 5.6 million authors, 55,000 editors and over half a million reviewers.

Over a third of Springer Nature owned journals and nearly half of its OA journals are now live on Snapp, with the rest of its portfolio to follow.

Using automation, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies, the "bold" new platform frees up time in the publishing process enabling authors and editors to focus on the research, according to Springer.

The company’s chief publishing officer Harsh Jegadeesan commented: “Innovation has always played an important role at Springer Nature and we continue to build on our experience with technology and AI tools to better support our research community.

“Snapp is a key demonstration of that, and reaching the milestone of one million submissions is a strong indicator of the experience it is providing our community.

"By building a platform that puts the authors, editor and reviewer at the heart, we are not only delivering an enhanced experience suitable for the future of publishing, but we are also ensuring that we are providing the services our community needs to get high-quality research published quickly and into the hands of those that can effect change on the world’s most pressing challenges.” 

Jeff Stonefield, v.p. digital and OA transformation at Springer Nature, added: “Snapp sits directly at the heart of what we do as publishers and represents the biggest technological change to our services in our 180-plus-year history. It has changed the way we handle articles to make submissions a more streamlined and intuitive process."

He acknowledged there needed to be constant improvements to the system. "It has of course not been without its challenges, and as such we continue to introduce the system in a tailored way, supporting and listening to our community," Stonefield said.

“A testament to its progress has been reaching the milestone of one million submissions, and we are proud of the collective work that has got the platform to where it is today. But there is still more to do as we continue to be responsive to our authors, editors and reviewers’ needs, and develop and deliver improvements and unique features over legacy platforms.”