PRESS RELEASES

Latest TA from Springer Nature sees Open Access momentum build across East Asia

Springer Nature agrees its first transformative agreement in South Korea with KAIST, expanding its OA commitment and establishing the first TA agreed by KAIST with any publisher

London | Berlin | New York, 01 November 2023


Springer Nature has agreed its first transformative agreement (TA) in South Korea with the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), supporting over 11,000 affiliated researchers to publish OA at no cost to them, and benefit from the positive impact OA has on research usage and reach.


The TA marks the first for the publisher in South Korea and the first TA for KAIST with any publisher. Alongside the publisher's recent agreements across Asia and the US, this latest TA continues to signal the growing demand, momentum and growth of OA impact outside of Europe.


Carolyn Honour, Chief Commercial Officer, Springer Nature commented:

“Transformative Agreements are bespoke agreements structured to meet individual customer needs. Our TAs now support researchers from over 3,500 institutions across six continents and continue to prove themselves as the most effective sustainable way to achieve OA growth and transition at scale. We are delighted to have come to this agreement with KAIST, who as an active promoter of the value and impact of OA, are closely aligned with our own goals. We remain focused on facilitating global OA and supporting academic collaboration, discoverability and usability so that all researchers, across the globe, can benefit from OA.”


KAIST affiliated researchers will benefit from access to, and OA publication in, over 2,000 Springer Nature hybrid journals as part of the three year deal which begins in 2024. 


Marking the first TA for the institution, Minsoo Kim, Director of the KAIST Academic and Cultural Center, said:

“Recently KAIST conducted a survey of researchers and over 90% of them said they wanted to be able to publish OA. As a result we have been looking for a partner to help support us in this transition, and are delighted to have found that partner in Springer Nature. This TA, the first among domestic universities in South Korea, will have the effect of converting subscription fees into open access article publication fees meaning that anyone in the world will be able to access our research without any barriers or restrictions. This is a great opportunity to widely share excellent research results.”


More on the publisher's commitment to the transition to OA can be found here, and the impact of its OA portfolio in its recent OA report.


ENDS


About The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)

The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology is a national research university located in Daedeok Innopolis, Daejeon, South Korea. KAIST was established by the Korean government in 1971 as the nation's first public, research-oriented science and engineering institution. For more information, please visit: https://www.kaist.ac.kr/en/.

About Springer Nature

For over 180 years Springer Nature has been advancing discovery by providing the best possible service to the whole research community. We help researchers uncover new ideas, make sure all the research we publish is significant, robust and stands up to objective scrutiny, that it reaches all relevant audiences in the best possible format, and can be discovered, accessed, used, re-used and shared. We support librarians and institutions with innovations in technology and data; and provide quality publishing support to societies. 

As a research publisher, Springer Nature is home to trusted brands including Springer, Nature Portfolio, BMC, Palgrave Macmillan and Scientific American. For more information, please visit springernature.com and @SpringerNature


Contact

Katie Baker | Head of Communications - Research and Publishing Services
katie.baker@springernature.com