Partnership with Max Planck Society marks Springer Nature’s largest open access book deal
The second institutional OA book deal for the publisher will advance shared goals for open research driving forwards OA for the books market.
London | Heidelberg, 11 May 2022
Springer Nature has signed its largest institutional OA book deal with the Max Planck Society through the Max Planck Digital Library (MPDL). The agreement covers all Springer Nature book imprints, across a broad range of disciplines, providing OA funding to affiliated authors from over 80 Max Planck Institutes.
This agreement marks the fifth OA book partnership1 and the second2 and largest national OA book deal for the publisher to date3 - a pivotal step in driving forward the sustainable transition to OA for book authors. With research showing that OA books are downloaded ten times more often and cited 2.4 times4 more than non-OA books, Max Planck authors publishing as part of this agreement will benefit from even greater reach and impact of their work.
Speaking of the partnership Niels Peter Thomas, President Greater China & Managing Director Books, Springer Nature, said:
“Open research, across books, data and journal articles, is important to advancing discovery. The journey to sustainable OA publishing for books, however, is progressing at a slower pace to that of journals due to different complexities, awareness, policy and funding facing the community. As such we are delighted to have been able to extend our longstanding partnership with the MPDL to enable authors to publish their books OA, advance sustainable routes for OA book publishing, and strengthen our shared goals for open research. It marks a pivotal step in the support for OA books and we look forward to working with more partners to extend this commitment further.”
The initial three-year agreement, live as of 1st January 2022, will enable authors from all 86 Max Planck Institutes to receive a discount on the standard Book Publishing Charge (BPC) to publish their book OA. MPDL will contribute central funding toward the coverage of the discounted BPC, lowering the costs for authors even further. The discount and funding will be available across all of the publisher's book imprints, under a CC BY licence, ensuring their work is freely accessible and discoverable to all communities across science, technology, medicine, the humanities and social sciences. They will be available to readers around the world via Springer Nature's content platform SpringerLink.
Ralf Schimmer, Head of Information at the MPDL, commented:
“In establishing this new agreement with Springer Nature, we further advance one of our core missions - to support our authors in the dissemination of their research beyond the restrictions of paywalls. By covering a significant share of the open access book publication costs, we are enabling more of our authors to publish their work openly, increasing readership and impact, in particular for those disciplines where books play a crucial role in the scholarly communication process.”
Springer Nature continues to play an active role in the advancement of OA publishing for books through its deals and partnerships, supporting all authors, regardless of discipline, location or funding, to publish OA. The publisher is the largest OA book publisher and pioneer in OA book models since the launch of its OA books programme in 2012. Since then the publisher has published over 1,500 OA books, with its book chapters having been downloaded over 200 million times.5
More information on the agreement can be found here. More information on Springer Nature’s OA book publishing can be found here, and its additional partnerships such as that with the OAPEN Foundation to devise OA resources for book authors. The publisher’s wider commitment to open science can be found here and here.
- ENDS -
Note to Editors:
1 Springer Nature, to date, has agreed five OA book deals with partners such as LYRASIS, UNESCO, the University of California, Berkeley as well as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
2 The publisher’s first institutional OA book agreement was with the University of California, Berkeley Library - Springer Nature and UC Berkeley Library sign new open access book partnership | Corporate Affairs Homepage | Springer Nature
3 By number of institutes covered and expected output
4 Diversifying Readership Through Open Access | Open research | Springer Nature
5 Springer Nature OA Factsheet
Springer Nature publishes OA books and chapters under our Springer, Palgrave Macmillan and Apress imprints. We helped to pioneer open access book publishing, first piloting open access publication for books in 2011. Our open access book portfolio currently includes over 1,500 books spanning all academic disciplines, with more than 200 million chapters downloads worldwide. Follow @SN_OAbooks to keep up-to-date with OA book news.
Research
Springer Nature has a number of reports in this area, providing a broader and more nuanced picture of the impact, visibility, and strengths of OA books including, Diversifying Readership in OA books (2020),The Future of OA Books (2019) and The OA Effect (2017).
For over 175 years Springer Nature has been advancing discovery by providing the best possible service to the whole research community. We help researchers uncover new ideas, support librarians and institutions with innovations in technology and data, and provide quality publishing support to societies. We 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.
As a research publisher, Springer Nature is home to trusted brands including Springer, Nature Portfolio, BMC, Palgrave Macmillan and Scientific American. Springer Nature is also a leading educational and professional publisher, providing quality content through a range of innovative platforms, products and services. Every day, around the globe, our imprints, books, journals and resources reach millions of people.
For more information, please visit springernature.com and @SpringerNature.
The Max Planck Society conducts basic research in the natural sciences, life sciences, and humanities. Since its foundation in 1948, eighteen Nobel laureates have emerged from its ranks. The Max Planck Society with its 86 Max Planck Institutes and facilities is the international flagship for German science: in addition to five foreign institutions, it operates another 20 Max Planck Centers with research institutions such as the Princeton University in the USA, the Paris University Science Po in France, the University College London in the UK, and the University of Tokyo in Japan. Equally funded by federal and state governments, the Max Planck Society had an annual budget of 1.8 billion Euros in 2018. More information is available at www.mpg.de/en
The Max Planck Digital Library (MPDL) is a central scientific service unit within the Max Planck Society dedicated to the strategic planning, development and operation of the digital infrastructures necessary for providing its institutes and their scholars and scientists with research information, support for web-based scholarly communication, research tools and research data management and software licensing.
Sam Sule | Communications | Springer Nature
sam.sule@springernature.com
