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Springer Nature (as Springer) signed its first transformative read and publish agreement in 2015. This Springer compact agreement with VSNU (Association of Universities in the Netherlands) was the first agreement of its kind to combine reading and publishing fees with the aim of transitioning traditional library subscription payments into central funding to support open access (OA) publishing. It has proved to be a pivotal moment in the transition to OA. Since then, Springer Nature has agreed many such national agreements all around the world, including the world’s largest with Projekt DEAL in Germany. Through a series of case studies, this article will examine the role these agreements have played in facilitating the transition to OA – to bring centralized funding for OA – and analyse how their nature and characteristics have evolved and adapted to reflect the differing needs of individual customers, as well as changing views. The paper will also consider the challenges faced by publishers, institutions, and funders in agreeing transformative agreements, consider how these ‘blockers’ can be overcome, and evaluate the future role of transformative agreements as a critical precursor to achieving open science.

This whitepaper explores the researcher preference for the version of record (VOR), compared to other article versions such as the accepted manuscript (AM) and preprints.

See RECORDING (starts at 00:19:05). Accelerating progress towards full and immediate open access (OA) is reliant on being able to source adequate funding to cover the costs of gold OA. Monitoring and tracking OA payments has created a complex and challenging role for institutions, but is crucial in order to understand the complete picture of the cost of OA. Whilst some institutions have developed methods to monitor OA payments, there remain a high number of "APCs in the wild", or APC payments whose origins are difficult to track. In this presentation we will summarise research Springer Nature has undertaken to explore the tracking and monitoring of APC payments, including interviews and a survey of global librarians, and data from Springer Nature authors to better understand the sources of APC funding, and the motivations and challenges concerning the monitoring of APCs. We will focus on feedback from institutions on the routes to implement better tracking, and on the noted benefits of being able to do so in enabling a faster transition to OA. &nbsp

This report summarises the findings of a survey with more than 2,000 researchers working in China, looking at the challenges and opportunities for data sharing in China.There is also an infographic available which highlights the key findings. To view it please visit https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7782761 .

The whitepaper highlights the challenges in monitoring payments for OA article processing charges (APCs), given that the sources of OA funding are often complex

Diversifying readership through open access: A usage analysis for OA books is a new white paper by Springer Nature and COARD based on usage data for 3,934 books, including 281 open access books. This white paper presents the analysis of that data, exploring what effect, if any, publishing OA has on the geographic usage of books. The findings will be of interest to researchers, authors, librarians and publishers alike.The white paper PDF and a zip file of all figures within the white paper have been attached. These figures can be used in presentations. All are released under a CC BY 4.0 licence.The summary one page infographic can be downloaded here: https://figshare.com/articles/media/Infographic_summary_of_Diversifying_readership_through_open_access_A_usage_analysis_for_OA_books_white_paper/12933131 Data and code relating to the white paper can be found together with the technical paper prepared by COARD: Paper: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4014905Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4018842 Code: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4019215

Good data sharing can make research more productive, more likely to be cited, and unlock innovation for the good of society. In 2019, a Springer Nature white paper (Lucraft et al. 2019), based on surveys with more than 11,000 researchers internationally, set out key challenges in data management and data sharing. We found: Data sharing is increasing: more than 64% of researchers in a 2018 survey said they made their data openly available. The majority of researchers see data sharing as important: across three surveys, when asked about the importance of making data discoverable, researchers gave an average rating of 7.5 out of 10. Data sharing and planning is currently suboptimal: The majority of the research community are not yet managing or sharing data in ways that make it findable, accessible or reusable. Increasingly, funders and other expert groups (European Commission 2018) are emphasising the need for data that is FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable and re-useable). To shift the needle on data sharing and to reap the benefits from more widely-available open data, collaborative action is required. In this presentation, we will discuss the five measures we believe are needed to make data sharing the norm: Clear policy: from funders, institutions, journals/publishers, and research communities themselves. Better credit: to make data sharing worth a researcher’s time. Explicit funding: for data management and data sharing, as well as data publishing. Practical help: for organising data, finding appropriate repositories, and provision of faster, easier routes to share data. Training and education: to answer common questions from researchers on data sharing and to help build skills and knowledge. We will draw on evidence and case studies from across Europe and beyond, as well as further feedback from our market research.

This white paper, published by Springer Nature, proposes and discusses key ways to improve on research data sharing practices. The related infographic is available in figshare: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7937195.v1The report builds on previous white papers on research data sharing, summarising the findings and data from large-scale surveys into researcher views and behaviours. The findings are summarised as five essential factors on what needs to be done to make good research data practice common and widespread. This includes an analysis of the currently data policy landscape and impacts, researcher motivations for sharing data and practical solutions to making data more FAIR.Specifically, this follows up with research conducted in China and Japan to complement the existing outputs based in North America and Europe. The report also summarises evidence from external sources on the impact of, and need for, data sharing.All reports and summary data are openly available in the figshare repository from the links below. Data were collected in online surveys run between 2017-2019 and are stored in Excel spreadsheet format. Individual surveys vary slightly in methodology, with respondents self-selecting to an extent. See individual datasets for more detail. Additional data supporting the findings of this report (for example the 2016 Nature online survey on reproducibility) are linked under References.Practical Challenges for Researchers in Data Sharing White paper: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.5975011Full survey dataset: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.5971387.v2Infographic: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.5996786.v4The State of Open Data Report 2018 White paper: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7195058.v2Full survey dataset: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7234985.v1Interactive data: https://knowledge.figshare.com/articles/item/state-of-open-data-2018Challenges and Opportunities for Data Sharing in China White paper: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7718441.v1Full survey dataset: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7321604.v1Infographic: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7782761Research Data Sharing in Japan White paper: forthcoming, 2019 Full survey dataset: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.6328952.v1 Infographic: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.6609056.v1

A poster that outlines five key ways to improve on research data sharing practices.

A global Springer Nature survey of more than 2,500 academic book authors provides in-depth insights into attitudes towards open access. The survey looks at researchers' motivations for publishing a book, and analyses the parameters and key drivers which influence academics to publish OA or not. The white paper also identifies the major obstacles to OA publication which book authors still face: from a lack of awareness of OA publishing options and low funding, to concerns about how OA books are perceived. 2,542 book authors completed the survey which ran for two weeks in February and March 2019.Related downloads:Appendix 3: Survey questionshttps://figshare.com/articles/Appendix_3_Survey_questions_-_The_future_of_open_access_books_Findings_from_a_global_survey_of_academic_book_authors/8166629Appendix 4: Raw datahttps://figshare.com/articles/Appendix_4_Raw_anonymised_data_-_The_future_of_open_access_books_Findings_from_a_global_survey_of_academic_book_authors/8166635Charts from the white paperhttps://figshare.com/articles/Charts_from_white_paper_The_future_of_open_access_books_Findings_from_a_global_survey_of_academic_book_authors_/8248268Infographic summary of the white paperhttps://figshare.com/articles/Infographic_summary_of_The_future_of_open_access_books_Findings_from_a_global_survey_of_academic_book_authors_white_paper/8248271

Open access book publishing is gaining momentum, with more than 10,000 titles published worldwide. But compared to the overall number of academic books that are produced, this is still a small percentage. With much research on the benefits to society from open access publication, what can we do to encourage more book authors to choose open access?Springer Nature is a leading academic book publisher – to date, we have published more than 550 open access books since launching OA book options in 2012. Feedback from our OA book authors has shown that metrics are important to them, as the data helps demonstrate the impact of their research to funders, and also supports conversations with their institutions for career progression. However, as highlighted in our white paper ‘The OA effect: How does open access affect the usage of scholarly books?’, some authors feel that there is a lack of information around metrics and book performance. This information may be critically important in helping authors consider the benefits of choosing to publish their book open access.Authors also state that one of the main obstacles to publishing more OA books through the gold route is funding; access to which varies globally and by discipline – a central theme that emerged at our researcher event during Academic Book Week 2018.Meanwhile, funders interviewed for ‘The OA Effect’ told us that they were keen to understand the impact of the OA books they had supported, but few had actually done so; many commented on the difficulties of measuring the impact of research. In light of these findings, in 2018 we piloted a new “impact report”, based on metrics for an individual funder of OA books. The outcomes of this pilot impact report project will help the scholarly communications community to better understand how publishers can inform funders, authors and their institutions about the impact of their research, and on a wider scale. What are the challenges of sharing the benefits of OA book publishing with researchers across different disciplines, and how can we overcome these challenges?Our poster shows excerpts from the pilot impact report, quotes from authors and funders about research impact, and considers next steps.

Conference poster presented at the Munin Conference 2018 in Tromso, Norway. Abstract: Open access book publishing is gaining momentum, with more than 12,000 titles published worldwide, available from the Directory of Open Access Books. But compared to the overall number of academic books that are produced, this is still a small percentage, representing Springer Nature is a leading academic book publisher – to date, we have published more than 600 open access books since launching OA book options in 2012. Feedback from our OA book authors has shown that metrics are important to them, as the data helps demonstrate the impact of their research to funders, and also supports conversations with their institutions for career progression. However, as highlighted in our white paper ‘The OA effect: How does open access affect the usage of scholarly books?’, some authors feel that there is a lack of information around metrics and book performance. This information may be critically important in helping authors consider the benefits of choosing to publish their book open access.

This infographic supports a white paper released by Springer Nature, DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.6396290

Slides presented during a panel discussion at the Altmetrics conference in July 2018

In one of the largest surveys of researchers about research data (with over 7,700 respondents), Springer Nature finds widespread data sharing associated with published works and a desire from researchers that their data are discoverable.This whitepaper examines the results of this survey and discusses the challenges that researchers face in sharing their data. The whitepaper looks at data sharing attitudes globally, as well as in relation to region, subject and seniority.Infographic: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.5996786

Slides presented at the 5:AM conference in London, September 2018.

This white paper from Springer Nature sets out the significant transition to OA in the UK: in 2017, 77% of all Springer Nature publications with UK corresponding authors were published via gold OA. In the five years since Finch, we have published nearly 28,000 gold OA articles with a UK corresponding author. In total, this represents a 174% increase in gold OA Springer Nature articles from 2013 to 2017. The white paper explores the factors that made this growth possible and calls for further collaboration from all stakeholders to support the transition to OA.

This report presents the first major comparative analysis of usage data for OA and non-OA scholarly books, and provides an informed view of how a book benefits from OA publication. It also highlights the challenges involved in measuring the impact of OA on scholarly books and suggests that there is much to do across the whole scholarly communications network in supporting authors and their funders. Part 1 of the report presents the findings of the quantitative analysis. The average performance of OA books, as measured by usage, citations and online mentions, was compared to the average performance of non-OA titles. Part 2 presents feedback from authors and funders who were interviewed about their experiences and perceptions of OA book publishing with Springer Nature. Interviews focused on: the impact of OA on books; OA book metrics that are of most relevance to authors and funders; and authors’ and funders’ expectations and experiences of, as well as motivations for, OA book publishing.