Taking Responsibility

Inclusion at Springer Nature

At Springer Nature our mission is to be part of progress – and that begins with inclusion: of people, perspectives, and ideas. We believe that diverse perspectives drive progress, and we are committed to creating an environment where people and ideas can flourish. 

That’s why we are building an inclusive culture within our organisation where our people can be themselves, thrive and grow. And we extend that commitment to the knowledge we share – working with our partners and communities to support research and learning that is inclusive, globally relevant, and reflective of the world we serve. Because inclusion leads to more robust research, more relevant learning, and better outcomes for society. 

Our commitment to inclusion shapes how we work internally, how we engage with the world, and how we collaborate with others.  

Externally, we aim to reflect the diversity of the world we serve by engaging with a wide range of communities and contributors. We support inclusive editorial practices, broaden access to knowledge, and strive to ensure our content and platforms are relevant and representative.

    At a glance

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    Our commitment to inclusion

    • In our organisation

      We work to create an open, welcoming, and supportive global culture where colleagues can be their true selves, participate equally, and perform at their best. We do this by embedding inclusive practices into our everyday processes and by supporting equity of access and a sense of belonging across our global teams. 

      Employee Networks © Shutterstock / Rawpixel.comCase study: Our Employee Networks 

      Our employee networks are open to all employees to join and participate. They unite colleagues who share an identity with those who support them or who want to learn more about their perspectives and experiences. The networks — with more than 1,800 members — focus on building connections between colleagues, raising awareness on important topics, consulting on business initiatives and advocating for their communities at Springer Nature and beyond. In 2024, our networks organised over 180 events across the organisation.

      We support network projects and events with a robust governance structure, sponsorship by senior leaders and additional advice and resources.


      Our work

      Examples of action we’ve taken

      Focusing on recruitment and succession
      • Reviewed our hiring process to identify opportunities for inclusivity
      • Delivered inclusive hiring training to talent attraction teams and hiring managers, developed an Inclusive Hiring Toolkit 
      • Ensured access to diversity-focused job boards for wider reach
      • Expanded the Opening Doors internship programme – offering paid experience in research and science publishing
      Removing barriers to access
      • Designed and launched a global Mentoring Programme across the organisation
      • Participation in the FT Women in Business Forum to support gender equity
      • Joined the Generation Valuable mentoring programme to empower future leaders with disabilities
      • Development of a Global Workplace Adjustments Policy to improve accessibility
      Creating an inclusive culture
      • Developed a Learning Journey and supporting resources to support continuous education on diversity, equity and inclusion for all colleagues
      • Integrated inclusive leadership principles into our leadership development programme
      • Delivered team workshops to support inclusive practices across business areas
      Community building and advocacy
      • Supported our employee networks to build thriving communities.

    • In our communities

      Externally, we aim to reflect the diversity of the world we serve by engaging with a wide range of communities and contributors. We support inclusive publishing practices, broaden access to knowledge, and strive to ensure our content and platforms are relevant and representative.  

      Our work

      Examples of our action so far

      Sharing our commitment to inclusion with others 
      • Communications toolkits to support colleague engagement with key stakeholders in our communities.
      • Developed guidelines for educational content and training to accompany them.
      • Developed a hub of resources and insights for inclusive publishing.
      Collecting and using reliable data to measure our progress  
      • Launched a new survey to understand what inclusion means to our global research community.
      • Collect and share data to understand the demographic make-up of key stakeholder groups that we work with. 
      Developing content everyone can access 
      Understand our supply chain 
      • Started reaching out to some of our largest suppliers to understand more about diversity in our supply chain.

      Understand barriers to access

      • Convened events on inclusion with our communities, for example our recent Breaking Barriers for Gender Equity through Research conference.
      • Launched our first benchmarking report, examining geographic and gender diversity across our community of over 100,000 academic editors, including  Editors-in-Chief and other editors for a group of approximately 3,000 Springer Nature journals. The results will help inform our continued action to support our editorial decision makers in diversifying their journals and consequently, the research community. We also published a report offering a comprehensive analysis of gender representation across multiple stages of the publication journey.

    • In our partnerships

      We collaborate with institutions, funders, and other organisations to support more inclusive approaches to research and learning: sharing ideas, building joint initiatives, and helping shape a more equitable and effective global knowledge ecosystem.  

      We’ve joined the Joint Commitment for Action on Inclusion and Diversity in Publishing, created dedicated Research Advisory Councils to better engage with a range of stakeholder groups, partner with Research4Life so research can be accessed in places where it is needed but may be unaffordable, and offer APC waivers for authors wishing to publish open access but lacking the funds to do so.