CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The Big Ten Academic Alliance, of which Penn State is a member, has signed a two-year open publishing agreement (OPA) with Springer Nature, making it the publisher’s first truly unlimited and uncapped open access agreement in the Americas. This is the Big Ten Academic Alliance’s fifth OPA and its most expansive to date.
This OPA deal offers all authors across participating institutions unlimited open access publishing in Springer’s hybrid journals portfolio — with no fees, no caps, no limits and no hassle — while at the same time uniformly expanding access to those titles regardless of past local subscriptions.
Authors from participating Alliance campuses can now publish their work openly — meaning published work will not be behind a paywall — in all Springer hybrid journals without paying article processing charges (APCs). The agreement simplifies author workflows, allows for authors to retain rights in their work, and ensures that published articles are immediately open and available to everyone under a Creative Commons license.
“With this new read and publish agreement facilitated through BTAA, Penn State corresponding authors’ work can be published in Springer hybrid journals and can be immediately open and visible without incurring additional cost for authors, libraries or readers,” said Mihoko Hosoi, the University Libraries’ chief officer for collections, research and scholarly communications. “We are thrilled that we were able to increase access to Penn State research and likely its impact.”
Additionally, this agreement expands the Penn State community’s access to Springer journals, including backfiles circa 1997 or the date the University Libraries purchased backfiles, whichever is earlier.
“This collaborative library collection development has allowed us to save costs and increase access and research visibility, and it will allow us to make better use of our collections space because of the expanded digital access to historical collections,” Hosoi said.
The Big Ten Academic Alliance’s OPA model helps to set new standards for fairness, sustainability and efficiency in the evolving scholarly publishing landscape. By removing administrative overhead burdens and financial barriers, researchers can more easily share their work freely and widely.
“Our [OPA] model reflects the priorities articulated by our faculty: to disseminate their scholarship widely through open access in prominent and reputable journals without having to worry about the costs,” said Maurice York, director of library initiatives for the Big Ten Academic Alliance. “This made Springer Nature an essential partner, as their titles are recognized for their academic excellence and global reach.”
Unlike traditional open access models, which often rely on publishing quotas or credit systems, under this agreement, faculty, students and staff can publish without concerns about exhausting allocations or exceeding limits. This includes system and branch campuses currently included in the agreement, as well as those that may join during its term, ensuring broad access for the entire academic community.
“Springer Nature is proud to be the most comprehensive open access research publisher, and we share the Big Ten Academic Alliance’s desire to increase the impact and reach of their authors’ highly valuable research,” said Maria Lopes, vice president of institutional sales at Springer Nature. “This is why we were so eager to develop this agreement — a first for us in the Americas.”
Carrie Webster, vice president of Open Access at Springer Nature, also spoke to how the potential benefits of increasing open access science.
“Open science is essential to addressing the world’s urgent challenges, and this agreement with the output coming from world-class research institutions will greatly increase the number of freely available articles that can advance science faster and more rigorously while also enhancing transparency, accessibility and reusability,” Webster said.
Beyond publishing, this agreement also grants full read access to the entire Springer Hybrid portfolio across all participating campuses, which includes more than 2,200 titles across the Springer, Palgrave Macmillan and Adis imprints, as well as academic journals on nature.com. In addition to Penn State, other participants include Indiana University, Michigan State University, Northwestern University, Purdue University, University of Illinois, University of Iowa, University of Maryland, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, University of Oregon, University of Wisconsin and the University of Chicago.
Operationally, the contract introduces a radically simplified administrative structure, eliminating multiple legacy agreements and reducing local overhead. The Big Ten Academic Alliance will serve as the central payer for all participating libraries — the absence of APCs results in significantly reduced campus overhead in managing payments. Springer Nature will serve as both service provider and partner, offering automated participating-author identification, dedicated support staff, educational webinars and marketing tools to assist in local adoption and promotion.
Campus authors can visit the Alliance’s Springer Nature information page for further details.
Editor's note: A version of this press release was originally published by the Big Ten Academic Alliance.
About the Big Ten Academic Alliance
The Big Ten Academic Alliance is the nation’s preeminent model for effective collaboration among research universities. For over half a century, these world-class institutions have advanced their academic missions, generated unique opportunities for students and faculty, and served the common good by sharing expertise, leveraging campus resources, and collaborating on innovative programs. Governed and funded by the provosts of the member universities, Big Ten Academic Alliance mandates are coordinated by a staff from its Champaign, Illinois headquarters. The nineteen world-class libraries of the Big Ten Academic Alliance include Indiana University, Michigan State University, Northwestern University, Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Purdue University, Rutgers University, University of California Los Angeles, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Iowa, University of Maryland, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, University of Oregon, University of Southern California, University of Washington, University of Wisconsin–Madison, and the University of Chicago.
About Springer Nature
Springer Nature is one of the leading publishers of research in the world. We publish the largest number of journals and books and are a pioneer in open research. Through our leading brands, trusted for more than 180 years, we provide technology-enabled products, platforms, and services that help researchers to uncover new ideas and share their discoveries, health professionals to stay at the forefront of medical science, and educators to advance learning. We are proud to be part of progress, working together with the communities we serve to share knowledge and bring greater understanding to the world. For more information, please visit about.springernature.com and @SpringerNature.