Open Access @ USI: "read & publish" agreement signed with Springer Nature

After months of negotiations triggering a situation of “no deal”, on 10 June 2026 swissuniversities concluded a comprehensive “read & publish” agreement with Springer Nature on behalf of Swiss higher education institutions. It combines access to the publisher's journals (read) with the possibility to publish free of charge in Open Access (publish).

The new comprehensive agreement, replacing the previous one signed in 2023, now integrates the Gold OA portfolio. This means that under this new “r&p” agreement, USI researchers will be able to publish in open access across Springer Nature’s entire portfolio (Springer Hybrid journals, Nature Hybrid journals, Springer Nature Gold OA journals).

With the integration of the OA portfolio, what was previously covered by third funding, by the USI Gold OA fund or by other means, is now fully integrated into the new agreement, thereby streamlining and facilitating the process for researchers and increasing the monitoring for OA administrators. Additionally, USI members will have full reading access to the entire Springer portfolio, to the journal ‘Nature’ and to the entire Nature portfolio.

The new agreement represents a concrete step towards Open Access. OA negotiations with major scientific publishers are an important part of the Swiss National Open Access Strategy, which pursues the vision of making the results of publicly funded research immediately and freely available to all.

More details are available on the USI Library dedicated FAQ page.

To find the list of included journals and to discover other ongoing agreements, you can have a look at the USI Library R&P dedicated page.

Read the full agreement details on the swissuniversities page.

The OA Service of the USI Libraries ([email protected]) will be happy to provide further information on the agreement with Springer Nature as well as on OA publication in general.