Open access books

Benefits of open access books

Why publish an open access book?

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Increased visibility and discoverability

  • Open access books and chapters are made available immediately on publication via Springer Nature Link, Springer Nature’s platform for all published content. The ePub and PDF files are both freely available to download and HTML is also free to read.
  • On average, open access (OA) books on Springer Nature Link are downloaded ten times more and cited 2.4 times more than our non-OA books – a significant benefit of open access. 
  • To increase discoverability of our authors’ work, open access books and chapters are also listed in the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) and, where appropriate, PubMed’s NCBI Bookshelf.

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High quality

  • All open access content published adheres to the high standards expected of all Springer Nature titles with the same rigorous peer-review process. 
  • Peer review is an integral part of the book submission and evaluation process at Springer Nature. The peer review system ensures that published research is rigorous and meets the international standards set by each discipline. Read more about publishing with SpringerOpen and Palgrave Macmillan.

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Authors retain copyright

  • Open access books are freely available for anyone to download, share, and re-use in accordance with the Creative Commons licence terms. Springer Nature offers the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence as its default licence for OA books.  Authors can also choose the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY), which is required by some funders. Find more information about open access licences for books and chapters on our website.

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Compliance with funder mandates

  • Publishing open access under a compatible licence with Springer Nature supports compliance with funders’ and governmental open access policies worldwide.