Springer Nature sees 40% growth for gold OA research in 2021

Springer Nature’s Transformative Journals published 40% more gold Open Access (OA) research articles in 2021 than the year before, according to new data released by the company.

Transformative Journals (TJs) are subscription or hybrid journals that are actively committed to transitioning to become fully Open Access. In all, 730 Springer Nature TJ journals met international research funding consortium cOAlition S’s OA requirement targets. The company said this means more of its titles achieved the required metrics than those from all other TJ publishers combined (608).

Data showed the articles were used on average 2.8 times more than subscription articles in the same journals. Springer Nature TJs also saw OA research article volume growth of 40% compared with growth of 8.4% for subscription research articles in the same titles.

Twenty-four journals in the Nature portfolio, all now on their path to OA, also met the targets set. Nature portfolio TJs overall also saw an eight percentage point growth in the proportion of OA research articles published in 2021, the company said.

Six TJs achieved 75% OA uptake in 2021 and will become fully OA titles in 2023. This is in addition to four titles that have already committed to flip to OA in 2023.

Steven Inchcoombe, Springer Nature chief publishing officer, said: “In 2020 we made a bold commitment and signed up the overwhelming majority of our hybrid journals to be recognised by cOAlition S as Transformative Journals. I am delighted that the data shows we were right to do so and am very proud of the progress these journals are making in supporting the transition to a fully OA world.

“This success has in part been made possible by our focus on securing new transformative agreements around the world, and by us putting the benefits of publishing immediate gold OA front and centre in our journal workflow and author communications. We have also supported the OA transition through research for authors that shows the impact publishing OA has on the reach of their work, and for funders that shows the value researchers place in having the final version of record immediately available.

“We are however not complacent and, working together with cOAlition S and non-cOAliton S funders, we believe we can build on this in 2022 by collectively making the case for gold OA.”