Remote Access

Our institutional licenses offer customers unlimited concurrent access to our content. That means you can access our content anytime and anywhere. There are many ways you can enable remote access for your users, and many institutions already have such mechanisms in place (i.e. proxy, VPN, federated access, etc.). Despite this, we have found that authentication and access is the #1 concern for researchers, according to our user satisfaction surveys.

Springer Nature is here to support you with remote access for your patrons. We understand that organizations have different preferences and systems to enable this and we try to facilitate your preferred way of working.

Remote access during COVID-19 pandemic

We are monitoring the coronavirus situation closely. Colleagues across all our teams remain accessible to you for any questions you may have. During this time, we are also doing everything necessary to make sure our research platforms remain fully available and we are ready to support the increasing numbers of researchers, students and faculty working from remote locations. We want to make sure access to our content is not interrupted in any way.

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SpringerLink and nature.com

Federated Access: A form of single sign-on that allows users to use their university credential to authenticate to our websites. Also-known-as Shibboleth and OpenAthens. Enabled by request and with an exchange of information.
Google Scholar CASA and Universal CASA: Google Scholar creates a link between the researcher’s Google ID and their institutional affiliation, based on the researcher being on their institution’s network IPs, when they come through Google Scholar or via antoher route to our websites. When the researcher next returns outside of their institution’s network IPs, Google Scholar helps us to authenticate the user based of the link they’ve established.
Persisted authentication: Recently enabled in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. We are now persisting institutional authentication in the user’s browser for a period of 90-days, subject to review.
Referrer Access: An institution sets up a ‘members only’ page on their website that is only accessible to authenticated members of the institution, and adds a link to our website to that page. When the researcher clicks on that link, we grant them access based on having navigated from ‘members only’ page.
Secure Proxy Server: Similar to a VPN in that researchers authenticate to their institution’s proxy server, we see the IP of the proxy server and grant access on that basis, and it’s implemented by the institution.
Virtual Private Network (VPN): Enables researchers to join their institution’s network when remote and gain IP access to our websites. Implemented by the institution.
Contact us! If you have questions or need help setting up remote access
SpringerLink only

Associated user: An association can be created between a researcher who has registered to our website and their institutional affiliation, so that when the researcher is individually logged in, they can access individual subscriptions. The association is made by registering while on the institution’s network IPs or by invitation. Enabled via the Springer Nature Librarian Administration Portal.
Contact us! If you have questions or need help setting up remote access
nature.com only

Token URL access: Access to Nature Research journals and Scientific American can be granted to patrons via "Token and MagicWord." Please note: We are developing a new way for you to provide users with access to your content, which will replace Token and MagicWord access. More details to come.
Contact us! If you have questions or need help setting up remote access
Databases & Solutions

Remote access options for AdisInsight, Nano and SpringerMaterials
Associated user: An association can be created between a researcher who has registered to our website and their institutional affiliation, so that when the researcher is individually logged in, they can access individual subscriptions. The association is made by registering while on the institution’s network IPs or by invitation. Enabled via the Springer Nature Librarian Administration Portal.
Federated Access: A form of single sign-on that allows users to use their university credential to authenticate to our websites. Also-known-as Shibboleth and OpenAthens. Enabled by request and with an exchange of information.
Persisted authentication: Recently enabled in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. We are now persisting institutional authentication in the user’s browser for a period of 90-days, subject to review.
Virtual Private Network (VPN): Enables researchers to join their institution’s network when remote and gain IP access to our websites. Implemented by the institution.
Please note: Full-text access is available to Springer Nature Experiments content via either SpringerLink or nature.com.

Contact us! If you have questions or need help setting up remote access

We are here to help

Setting up federated access to Springer Nature

Visit our federated access web page for information on services and support available to you around Single sign-on and federated access.

Federated Access

Activate your administrator account

Visit our customer service support portal to see what steps you can take to active your administrator account and access the Librarian Portal.

Activate administrator account

Additional implementation resources

Discovery at Springer Nature

MARC Records

SN Librarian Portal

Account Development

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