Open access at scale: why it continues to deliver for authors, research and society

Author: Harsh Jegadeesan

Chief Publishing Officer

For more than 25 years, we have stood behind a simple principle: research has greater impact when it is open, trusted and usable. Researchers want their work to be read, cited and built on. Funders and policymakers want the research they support to be openly available — immediately, and in its final, citable form. And society depends on the integrity of the version of record to inform decisions and tackle urgent global challenges.

At a time when the costs associated with OA are being questioned, it is worth looking at the value it delivers in enabling scalable and sustainable openness.

• For researchers, immediate openness drives visibility, use and impact. As our latest Annual Report shows, last year saw a 9% increase in average citations per published OA article.
• For institutions and libraries, OA delivers stronger engagement. Research published openly is downloaded and reused far more widely, helping maximise the value of institutional research investment.
• For society, OA ensures timely access to evidence that matters. In 2025, we published 1.4 million research articles and book chapters related to the SDGs – 62% were OA supporting policy and public debate.

By ensuring immediate access to trusted high-quality content at the point of publication, supporting authors through waivers and sustained reinvestment, OA helps ensure that both access to research and participation in publishing are equitable at global scale.

Delivering OA at global scale

As Frank has said before me, OA agreements remain a key driver of this progress. They help institutions manage costs, simplify publishing for authors, and support participation across disciplines. In 2025, we reached 85 agreements worldwide, supporting researchers at more than 4,400 institutions and enabling the publication of more than 63,000 open access articles — up 12% on 2024.

We also waived more than €22 million in APCs, ensuring researchers in underfunded disciplines and in LIC and LMIC countries can benefit fully from the reach and engagement that OA delivers. At the same time, the average cost per download has fallen by around 54% since 2019, and we continue to reinvest more than 10% of profits back into the research community. Today, more than 53% of the primary research we publish is open access — a clear signal of uptake and confidence from researchers.

Transparency and reproducibility - foundations of trust

This growth has not come at the expense of quality or impact.  In 2024, our average acceptance rate for full OA article was 21.1%, down from 29.5% in 2019. – reflecting sustained selective and a continued focus on publishing high quality research. That rigor underpins trust in the scientific record.

Making research immediately available in its final, peer‑reviewed form is fundamental to that trust. OA ensures work can be scrutinised, reused and built upon from day one, whilst remaining connected to the academic record in perpetuity. Through our advocacy for reproducibility, transparent peer review and open standards — including data availability statements and the open sharing of data, code and protocols — we are working with the community to ensure that every stage of the research process is visible and accountable.

Scaling responsibly with AI

Partnership will continue to be central to progress. The future of open access is multi‑funded, with collaboration across publishers, institutions, funders and infrastructure providers essential to enabling scale while managing cost and maintaining quality.

Innovation is key. To accelerate the next phase of the transition, we are investing strongly in technology and AI, focused on making publishing easier for authors while protecting the integrity and trust of research. Since 2021, Springer Nature has invested €188 million in technology, including AI‑enabled tools that strengthen research integrity, support editorial decision‑making and improve the publishing experience.

Finally - industry collaboration, supporting more open ways of sharing research and removing barriers to participation. We will continue to play an active role in discussions around shared protocols, data availability and open code policies, listening closely to our community to help build shared standards that benefit the research ecosystem.

The transition to OA is ongoing and complex. Progress depends on partnership, shared standards and sustained investment. Our responsibility is clear: to ensure OA is accessible to all, sustainable at scale, and uncompromising on quality and trust.