Springer Nature open access cap expected to be reached in late September

The cap (the limit) of the open access deal with Springer Nature hybrid journals are expected to be reached in late September. This affects researchers who want to publish here.

What are the consequences? 

When the cap is met, articles submitted to the hybrid journals can still be published without publication costs, but only as ‘closed access’ behind the paywall.

What can you do when publishing closed access is not an option? 

• Did you submit your article for open access publication in a hybrid journal of these publishers? And do you expect that your manuscript is accepted between the end of August and January 2027? Then we advise you to look for other financing options.  
• Have you not submitted your manuscript yet? Consider waiting until 2027, when new agreements may be entered into.
• You can also choose a journal from another publisher. Check the UU Journal Browser to find open access publishers. 
• You might be able to publish via the green open access route (Taverne). This way, your closed published article will become open access available in the UU repository (found in the UU Research Portal), 6 months after publication. Check your funder requirements to see if these are met when you publish open access after 6 months.

Does your research have external funding?

Some researchers make use of external funding to execute their research, from which the grants have allocated money that can be used to pay for the OA publication costs (APCs). We kindly request these researchers to use these funds to pay for the publication costs. This way, other researchers without (external) funding, are given the opportunity to use the current agreement with the publisher before the caps is reached.

Do you have any questions? 

Please contact the library.