National negotiations on Springer Nature winter 2022
The prices of electronic resources are increasing significantly in these years. At the moment, negotiations are underway with Springer Nature, which is one of the largest players on the market, and this could have consequences for researchers and students at SDU.
The University Library of Southern Denmark spends a large two-digit million sum on buying access to scientific literature and information databases. This can all be searched via our search well: www.sdu.dk/summon
Springer Nature is a big player
A large part of the scientific literature is provided by Springer Nature. Approximately 15% of SDU's budget for electronic materials will go to Springer Nature in 2022. This year, the library expects that employees and students at SDU and the university hospitals in the Region of Southern Denmark will download approx. 258,000 articles from Springer Nature.
National license agreement
The University of Southern Denmark is covered by a national agreement with Springer Nature; a license that covers all Danish universities and other educational institutions. The Royal Library's National Licensing Consortium handles the national negotiations. The national agreement with Springer Nature is under negotiation this winter of 2022.
The negotiations risk a breakdown
In Denmark, we want immediate access to our own research publications as soon as they are published. And we will not accept price increases for reading access to other countries' research publications.
More and more SDU researchers find themselves in distress regarding Open Access publishing due to foundations' demands for immediate access financed by the researchers' own funds. There is therefore a need for an agreement that includes both reading access and publication and thus a financially balanced agreement.
The college of rectors and the committee of university directors in Danish Universities stand together behind the goal of the negotiation, which is:
- immediate access to Danish universities' research publications as soon as they are published
- no price increase for read access to the content of Springer Nature products in general.
There is a risk that the negotiations with Springer Nature may break down. This will mean that we in Denmark will be without access to NEW content in Springer Nature journals published from 2023 onwards. Please note that we will continue to have access to publications published before 2023.
If now…
Should the negotiations go to a stalemate and Springer Nature closes all new literature, the University Library of Southern Denmark is prepared to help and guide SDU researchers on alternative ways of obtaining the right sources. We are already working on exploring the possibilities. In this construction, Open Access and the researchers' network may come into play. It is important that we do not end up buying or paying for the literature from Springer Nature by detours.
If you are contacted by Springer Nature
To ensure a controlled dialogue with Springer Nature, we recommend that you contact the library, should Springer Nature contact you directly about the ongoing negotiation - use the email lonem@bib.sdu.dk
SDU have access to the following products from Springer Nature:
- Springer Journals
- Nature Journals
- Palgrave journals
- Springer Protocols
- Springer e-books
- MathSciNet