Springer Nature Open Publishing Agreement (OPA)

Information for authors is available on the Springer webpage

Overview

The Big Ten Academic Alliance’s Open Publishing Agreement (OPA) between participating members of the Alliance and Springer Nature commenced on January 1, 2025 and ends on December 31, 2026. Springer’s web page on the Alliance’s agreement has detailed information on the agreement.

This OPA provides two services: uncapped open access publishing in all Springer Hybrid journals at no additional cost to authors and multi-year reading rights to the full Springer Hybrid portfolio.

Journal Access

All participating institutions will benefit from reduced annual cost increases in subscription years 2025 and 2026. Perpetual rights are provided to all volumes published during the agreement term; shallow back-file access is also guaranteed in line with the specific terms of each journal.

Open Publishing Opportunities

For authors from Alliance campuses covered by this agreement (see “Participating institutions”), there will be no charge for corresponding authors who publish open access in Springer hybrid journals. Springer’s web page on the BTAA agreement has the complete list of eligible journals that make up Springer Hybrid Journals portfolio. It includes Springer, Adis, and Palgrave Macmillan imprints as well as Academic Journals on nature.com and a number of smaller imprints. Nature and Nature-branded titles are excluded from the agreement. 

Eligible authors include faculty, staff, and students who are employed by, enrolled at, or otherwise accredited to the participating institution. In the case of multiple authors, only the author who is corresponding with the publisher (i.e., the corresponding author) at the time of acceptance qualifies. Corresponding authors are encouraged to provide their institutional affiliation (ORCID IDs may also be supplied) and use their institutional email addresses when submitting articles. If authors cannot find their institution in the affiliation lists provided in the publishing workflow or are told they are ineligible to participate in this agreement, they should reach out to the publisher and their library.

Open publishing strives to reduce or eliminate access barriers in the scholarly ecosystem. BTAA research papers published under this agreement will be accessible to all readers irrespective of an individual's or an institution's ability to pay under a Creative Commons license.

When an article is accepted by a journal, the corresponding author will sign an author agreement and select a Creative Commons license, e.g., CC-BY, that determines how readers can use the article.

Participating Systems and Institutions

• Indiana University

• Michigan State University

• Northwestern University

• Pennsylvania State University

• Purdue University

• University of Illinois

• University of Iowa

• University of Maryland-College Park

• University of Michigan

• University of Minnesota 

• University of Oregon

• University of Wisconsin

• University of Chicago