Unlocking knowledge: How open access is changing research

Author: Jovial Toh

Open Access Week is a chance to ask a simple but powerful question: who gets to own, access, and benefit from knowledge? At Springer Nature, we believe the answer should be: everyone. In this blog, we will explore the impact of open access and Springer Nature’s commitment to making research more equitable.

Why open access matters

Open access (OA) isn’t just about removing paywalls. It’s about removing barriers to discovery, to collaboration, and to progress. When research is freely available, it reaches educators, clinicians, policymakers, and communities and helps solve problems faster and more efficiently.

That’s why Springer Nature supports gold OA—where articles are immediately and permanently accessible. It’s the most complete and sustainable way to make open science a reality, and it’s how we ensure that research reaches the people who need it most.

By allowing knowledge to flow freely and widely, OA helps level the playing field, removing steep barriers faced by researchers in low and middle-income countries, independent scholars, and practitioners outside academia.

Leading the transition to open science

Springer Nature has been publishing OA for over 20 years. Today, we offer OA options across all our journals and disciplines, enabling researchers everywhere to share their work openly.

This year, we’re marking two major milestones:

• 25 years of BMC
  • Our pioneering OA imprint, first established in 1999 as BioMed Central. 
• 10 years of transformative agreements (TAs)
  • We established the first TA with VSNU in 2015. Today, we have 80+ TAs globally, supporting researchers from over 3,700 institutions to publish OA with fees covered.

What transformative agreements make possible

Transformative agreements are reshaping the publishing landscape by enabling researchers to publish OA at scale. These agreements are driving OA uptake across regions and disciplines, delivering tangible benefits to authors. More than just funding mechanisms, they empower choice, reduce barriers, and make OA the default option. They also reflect a broader commitment to transparency and accountability in supporting the research community, both now and in the future.

Dr Ruiz Serrano, whose research was published OA under the Hong Kong JULAC TA, shared:

“OA amplifies the reach and influence of my work, reaching scholars, practitioners, and policymakers who might otherwise face financial barriers to accessing critical information.”

At Hospices Civils de Lyon in France, researchers are using OA to improve public health outcomes.

“With gold OA, our results may gain greater visibility, allowing others to discuss, criticise, reproduce, or comment on our data. ”

These stories show how OA isn’t just a publishing model—it makes a tangible difference to the world we live in. It’s helping researchers connect with audiences they might never have reached otherwise, accelerating the pace of knowledge-sharing across borders.

The impact of transformative agreements is clear—OA uptake is accelerating across regions and disciplines. Here’s a snapshot of how we at Springer Nature are helping drive this global transition:

• In countries/regions where new national TAs went live in 2024, such as Hong Kong, Israel and Romania, OA uptake reached at least 50% in the first year. This represents at least a 7x increase in OA uptake.
• Established agreements continue to see strong growth of OA share into the second year of their TAs with uptake increasing by at least 15% for countries such as Denmark, Slovakia, Slovenia and South Africa.
• Long-standing TAs in Norway, Switzerland and Finland saw around 90% OA uptake across all disciplines in 2024.
• The US also saw strong growth with OA uptake reaching 29% in 2024.

A commitment to equity

Springer Nature’s commitment to OA is rooted in our values: Partnership, Integrity, Drive and Responsibility. We believe that everyone should benefit from the OA transition—and that means ensuring it’s fair and equitable.

Our work to enable OA for all is part of a broader mission to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in scholarly publishing. We’re focused on removing barriers, supporting underrepresented voices, and building systems that serve the whole research community.

Equity in OA also means recognising the different needs of researchers. Whether it’s navigating article processing charges (APCs), understanding licensing options, or accessing publishing support, we’re working to make the OA journey more transparent and more inclusive.

OA is also part of a broader shift toward open science—a movement that includes open data, open peer review, and open collaboration. These changes are reshaping how research is done, shared, and used, and they’re helping build a more transparent and trustworthy research ecosystem.

OA’s global impact

One of the most powerful aspects of OA is its ability to support researchers and communities in places where access to subscription-based journals is limited or non-existent. In many parts of the world, OA is not just a preference, it’s a necessity.

By making research freely available, OA helps bridge gaps and supports evidence-based decision-making in healthcare, education, and policy. It empowers local researchers to contribute to global conversations and ensures that solutions are informed by diverse perspectives.

Springer Nature’s OA publishing model is designed to be inclusive and ensures that knowledge is not locked behind paywalls.

Looking ahead

The theme of OA Week 2025—Who Owns Our Knowledge? invites us to think critically about access, ownership, and equity. At Springer Nature, we believe that knowledge should be shared, which in turn drives progress.

We’re proud to be part of this transition, and we’re committed to making it work for everyone. That means continuing to invest in OA infrastructure, listening to our authors, and collaborating with institutions and funders to build a more open and equitable publishing ecosystem.

Learn more

Curious about how OA works and how to navigate article processing charges? Explore our Open Access APC Guide to learn more.

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