Springer Nature signs its first 'pure OA' deal with Sweden's Bibsam

An agreement between publisher Springer Nature and Sweden's Bibsam consortium - made up of institutional libraries and funders - will see the two share the costs of publishing in Springer Nature's Open Access journals.

The "pure OA" deal, a first for Springer Nature, means Swedish researchers affiliated with Bibsam organisations will be able to publish in nearly 600 of its journals without having to directly pay Article Processing Charges (APCs). Bibsam said it would "continue to work with funders and publishers to find solutions for new publishing agreements", saying: "Funding for publishing should not come from the individual researcher." 

The agreement also sees a renewal of Bibsam’s existing Read and Publish deal - combining journals subscription with Open Access publishing credits - with Springer Nature.

Springer Nature has also agreed a transformative Read and Publish deal with Norway's Unit consortium, to run from 2020 to 2022. This takes the total of the publisher's Read and Publish deals to 10.
 
Frank Vrancken Peeters, chief commercial officer for Springer Nature, said: “We are extremely pleased to have signed with Bibsam our first ever pure OA deal and are delighted to welcome Norway to our Read and Publish family as we know the important role such deals play in driving the transition to open access. They show what can be achieved for the research community when academic institutions, libraries, and research funders work effectively together. 
 
“These deals mark an acceleration of our commitment to speed up the transition to OA and, with such deals recognised by Plan S as a compliant way to transition to OA, makes our idea of transformative publishing a reality”.

Wiley also recently signed a Read and Publish deal in Norway. Elsevier has recently entered a new pilot agreement with the country after Norway cancelled its journals contracts with the publisher in March.