Snapp: Investing in the future of publishing

Snapp, the Springer Nature Article Processing Platform, is a key investment into the future of publishing. This next generation peer review system makes publishing research a simple and rewarding experience. And it ended 2023 with a substantial milestone: 1 million article submissions!

How is this revolutionary platform benefiting the research community and making publishing research more efficient? Learn more about Snapp and how it revolutionises your path to publishing.

The journey of a manuscript involves many steps, undertaken by various persons in different roles: The author submitting the paper for publication, the reviewer providing feedback, the editor’s oversight of the process. In Snapp, this journey to ensure the integrity and quality of published research is meticulously monitored and managed. 

Snapp provides a streamlined, easy-to-use experience that takes manuscripts through the various stages of this journey. The platform serves Springer Nature’s authors, editors, and peer reviewers, and was designed to be intuitive and simple to use.

With the goal of meeting the needs of its users and responding to them, Snapp is developed in-house at Springer Nature. This allows it to constantly evolve and react to the changing requirements of the users. Working closely with the academic community and based on user feedback, Snapp is continuously refined, and new features are introduced to make the platform faster, more useful, and easier to use.

Features and benefits for Snapp users

Since its introduction in 2019, Snapp has supported over 5.6 million authors, collaborating with 55,000 editors, and engaging over half a million reviewers. And it has recently hit 1 million article submissions. Let’s review some of the features and benefits for each user group that make it a game changer in publishing research:

For authors…

• Easy uploading of manuscripts via a single login point for all submissions, regardless of journal
• Integrated way to identify relevant OA funding and entitlements
• 1-click transfers to ensure placement in the right home for papers
• Timesaving extraction of data from the manuscript to pre-fill forms 
• Keep track of progress of all submissions transparently and in real time

For editors…

• Dashboard with overview of submission progress 
• Integrated reviewer finder to quickly find the most suitable reviewers for each paper   
• Automated reminders to keep work on track

For reviewers…

• Step by-step guidance in the peer review process
• Calendar integration to keep track of due dates

Advancing OA publishing

With the increasing demand for open access (OA) publishing, Snapp offers a more agile response to the evolving publication landscape. A whopping 75% of the 1 million submissions already facilitated by Snapp were OA publications. This certainly supports Springer Nature’s commitment to enable and grow OA content.

By incorporating features and mechanisms that align with the principles and requirements of OA publishing, Snapp supports the transition to OA and the increasing demand of OA publishing. Examples of such mechanisms include the integration of OA options into the article submission process, identification of OA funding, support with OA standards and mandates, and more.

Streamlining the publication process

Snapp uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to automate the more tedious tasks facing users, or to automatically track down the most suitable reviewers for each submitted research paper. Snapp is already improving the author's publishing experience, for instance in reducing turnaround time from article submission to acceptance by up to 70%.

By streamlining the publication process and making it straightforward, intuitive, and effective, Snapp allows its users—the authors, editors, and peer reviewers—to spend more time on their actual research.

Snapp’s users are at the heart of the system, which was developed and continues to evolve to serve their needs and offer them an enhanced experience. This allows for quick publication of high-quality research, and supports Springer Nature’s commitment to advancing discovery.

Learn more about Snapp, and join us in celebrating 1 million article submissions.

About the author

Shaheeda Sabir is a seasoned Product Manager at Springer Nature and is responsible for product development on Snapp for the editor experience. She’s worked across a number of industries and is able to bring a fresh perspective to solving editors’ needs and prioritising the right problems.