Updated on 9 November 2023
Springer Nature Article Discount Quota
Our national Read and Publish deal with Springer Nature encompasses a discount on publishing open-access articles. You can find the titles within this deal via our UM Open Access Journal Browser. Per the agreement between Springer and the Universities of The Netherlands (UNL), Dutch corresponding authors can publish up to 2,067 open-access articles in 2023 without incurring additional article processing charges (APC).
Springer informed us today, 8 November 2023, that we reached the national annual quota. Springer has suspended the deal, and authors can no longer use the discounted APC route. Articles will no longer qualify for the usual 100% discount on the open access fee.
Temporary Suspension of APC Coverage upon Quota Fulfilment
Authors can still publish open access during the deal’s suspension but must arrange APC payment in consultation with their research project or faculty. Maastricht University does not have a central APC budget to cover APC payments. Publishing costs are considered research costs.
If negotiations for extending our current deal in 2024 are successful, a new allocation of APC waivers will be available starting 1 January 2024. Negotiations are ongoing.
What Happens if Springer Accepts My Manuscript during Suspension?
Authors can either publish open access and cover the APC themselves or publish with a subscription license (Closed Access) and make their article available after publication (Green Open Access). Open-access publication (Gold Open Access) is only mandatory when required by the funder of the research. In other cases, Green Open Access is sufficient to comply with UM policy.
Green Open Access and the Taverne Amendment
Green Open Access is when authors publish their article in a hybrid journal (like the Springer Nature titles in our deal) with a subscription license (Closed Access, no APC), and they share an allowed version of the article via an Institutional Repository (UM/MUMC+ Research Information) after publication.
Should a research funder (e.g. NWO or Horizon Europe) require authors to publish Gold Open Access (no embargo and under an open license), then note that the coverage of publishing costs (APC) is usually included in the research funding, so settling the APC with the research budget is then apparent.
Participation in our “You Share, We Take Care” initiative ensures that closed-access articles will be made open access via UM/MUMC+ Research Information, but only six months after publication and without an open license. This is facilitated by Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, also known as the Taverne amendment, which grants Dutch-affiliated researchers the right to make their short academic works open to the public for free after a brief embargo period.
Maastricht University Library will manage the opening of all qualifying publications for every UM/MUMC+ participant after they sign up (opt-in) for the service [opens UMployee].
Handling Manuscripts Under Review during Suspension
If a manuscript is under review during suspension, authors can proceed as described in the previous section. Although this is not considered a regular strategy, in exceptional cases after mid December they may have the option or the time to delay the process so that final acceptance does not occur until after 1 January, allowing them to take advantage of the new discount deal.
Open Access Update and Notify Me Service
To stay informed about Springer and other publisher deals, subscribe to our Open Access and Open Educational Resources group in UMployee, where we share exciting and need-to-know information.
You can also sign up for our national notify-me-service maintained by the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). Both services will keep you informed about similar situations with other publishers should they arise in the future.
More information
- Overview of all our Open Access APC deals with publishers
- Find discounts and other open-access information about journals in our Open Access Journal Browser
- Open Access publishing portal
If you wish to discuss your options or have questions about open-access publishing deals, contact Ron Aardening or Michel Saive via Ask Your Librarian. Or leave a comment at the bottom of this message.
Thanks for alerting us to this.
Last year, the quota was filled in mid-November, and the year before in December. It seems to be getting earlier and earlier. Is anything being done to re-negotiate the deal, either by the UM library or at national level?
The suggestion to try to postpone publication until next year is not really feasible for many, especially PhDs and early career researchers. For them, speed may well be of the essence, to finish their PhDs, apply for grants and jobs. The only case I know of doing this successfully was a very senior scholar who knew the journal editor. Journals also have to plan their publications, so this is not really an option from their perspective either. Plus shifting to next year, just moves the problem to next year, when the quote might be filled up by September.
Dear Sally, you are right, the caps are reached earlier every year.
The cap of read-and-publish deals is based on the initial library subscription budgets, which do not grow (if they do) as quickly as the sum of APCs for the published research publications.
Although this phenomenon is the subject of negotiations since the number of publications multiplies, publishers no longer accept unlimited APC discounts. This is one of the reasons the renegotiations with Springer for a new arrangement have stalled, and parties prolonged the 2022 arrangement for another year. Negotiations are still taking place for a new agreement starting in 2024. Still, given APC deals and a limited budget, a choice will have to be made between the number of publications, titles, or the type of publications in the package.
Assuming that the number of publications per year will not decrease and budgets will not increase at equal speed (and, not insignificantly, that we do not want to see more resources flowing to commercial publishers either), we will have to work with other universities and funders to look at how and where we publish. This was also the theme of this year’s Open Access Week. Diamond Open Access will play a growing role in this.
And, of course, you are correct concerning postponing a publication. This is only an option when publishing is planned for (late) December and only from a personal perspective, not as a strategy nor from the university perspective, as the article will count as next year’s article.