Beginning August 1, 2022, University of California corresponding authors publishing in the Nature portfolio of journals will be able to publish their articles as open access with financial support from the UC libraries. The agreement applies to a broad range of Nature hybrid and fully open access journals, including Nature, the Nature research journals, Nature Communications, and Scientific Reports.

Under the agreement, the UC libraries will pay the first $1,000 of the article processing charges (APCs) for articles by UC corresponding authors that are accepted for publication in hybrid and open access Nature journals covered by the agreement. The remainder due on each APC will be covered by the authors themselves, utilizing research funds available to them. Authors without research funds to pay the remainder of the APC may publish their articles on a subscription basis.

Although the newly included Nature journals are not eligible for full coverage of the APC, UC authors publishing open access in Springer imprints (including Adis, Biomed Central, Palgrave Macmillan, Springer, Springer Open, and hybrid academic journals on Nature.com) will continue to receive the $1,000 subvention as well as the option for full coverage of the APC if they lack research funds for publication.

This funding support for open access publishing in Springer journals has resulted in a three-fold increase in UC open access articles published in Springer Nature journals. UC researchers published more than 1,300 open access articles in Springer Nature journals in 2021, up from 400 in 2020. UC is now on track for an even greater number of open access articles to be published in 2022 and beyond.  

The addition of Nature titles into the Springer Nature agreement fulfills a commitment from both UC and Springer Nature to work towards a comprehensive open access publishing agreement. The contract period for the UC Nature Agreement will commence August 1, 2022 and continue through December 31, 2024. The existing UC Springer Agreement will be extended through 2024 to align both agreements’ end dates and allow for a single negotiation covering both portfolios at the time of renewal.

The agreement also continues to provide UC scholars with reading access to all currently licensed Springer Nature journals through December 31, 2024.

For more details, please see the overview and FAQ of the Springer Nature open access agreement.

ABOUT UC’S TRANSFORMATIVE OPEN ACCESS AGREEMENTS

Transformative open access agreements support the University of California’s mission as a public university and advance the global shift toward sustainable open access publishing by making more UC-authored research articles open to the world, while maintaining journal affordability. UC seeks to partner with publishers of all types, sizes, and disciplines to jointly advance a worldwide transition to open access across the entire landscape of scholarly journal publishing. For more on these aims and principles, see UC’s Call to Action for Negotiating Journal Agreements at UC, the UC faculty Academic Senate’s Declaration of Rights and Principles to Transform Scholarly Communication, and UC’s priorities for publisher negotiations.

Questions? UCI faculty, student, and staff may contact John Renaud, Associate University Librarian, Research Resources, jrenaud@uci.edu.