Glossary of terms

Accepted manuscript (AM) 

Also referred to as the “author’s accepted manuscript”, this is the version of the article that has been accepted for publication after peer review but before copyediting and typesetting. The AM can be self-archived by authors and should not include any changes made after editorial acceptance. 

Article processing charges (APCs) 

As costs are involved in every stage of the publication process, from administrating peer review to copy-editing and hosting the final article on dedicated servers, authors are asked to pay an article processing charge (APC) in order for their article to be published open access under a Creative Commons licence. Many research funders and institutions worldwide offer funding for APCs. 

APC/BPC/CPC Waivers/Discounts 

A reduction or removal of the article processing charge (APC), book processing charge (BPC), or chapter processing charge (CPC) for fully open access publications. Springer Nature may apply discounts or waivers for APCs in cases of financial need.  

Author Choice 

Authors can choose to publish open access when offered as an option in hybrid journals. 

Book processing charges (BPCs) 

A book or chapter processing charge (BPC/CPC) covers all the costs of commissioning, copyediting and proofreading, production, dissemination and promotion of our authors’ work, including online hosting and indexing. Many research funders and institutions worldwide offer funding for BPCs. 

Centralised funding 

A funding model where article processing charges incurred to publish open access are covered by funders or institutions instead of by individual authors. This is often facilitated through OA agreements.  

Chapter processing charges (CPCs) 

A book or chapter processing charge (BPC/CPC) covers all the costs of commissioning, copyediting and proofreading, production, dissemination and promotion of our authors’ work, including online hosting and indexing. Many research funders and institutions worldwide offer funding for CPCs.  

Creative Commons (CC) 

A not-for-profit organisation granting Creative Commons (CC) licenses.  

Creative Commons (CC) licence 

A licence that grants the public permissions to use authors’ creative work under copyright law. Depending on the type of CC licence, this may include the right to share, use, modify, adapt and build upon the authors’ work. Springer Nature offers two main types of CC licensing. 

Double dipping 

Occurs in cases where publishers charge authors fees to publish individual articles open access in hybrid journals without a proportionate decrease in subscription costs. This means the publisher is charging twice for the same content — readers (or their institutions) are charged subscription fees, and authors are charged article processing charges. Springer Nature operates a strict no double dipping policy. 

Diamond open access (OA) 

An open access publishing model in which content is free to publish and free to access, for both authors and readers (or their institutions). Article processing charges are funded by other sources such as universities, research institutions, or grants.

Embargo period 

A time between first publication of a version of record and the point at which the accepted manuscript can be made publicly available in an institutional or funder repository. The duration of the embargo period varies depending on the journal but typically lasts for either six or twelve months. 

Fully open access (OA) 

A publishing model where all published research is freely available to readers. Authors pay an article processing charge to cover publishing costs. Unlike hybrid or Transformative Journals, fully OA journals do not include any subscription-based content.  

Fully open access (OA) agreement 

A type of open access agreement that covers the publishing costs in fully OA journals.

Fully open access (OA) journals 

A journal in which all content is published open access — freely and immediately available to access online. OA content is open to all, with no access fees.  

Funding and policy support service 

A free support service offered by Springer Nature, helping authors discover and apply for funding to cover open access publishing costs such as article processing charges and/or book processing charges. 

Green open access (OA) 

Also referred to as “self-archiving”, green OA describes a route to making research outputs openly accessible, by archiving a version of the accepted manuscript in an OA repository outside of the publisher platform. Manuscripts deposited via the green OA route typically become publicly accessible after an embargo period of six or twelve months.  

Gold open access (OA) 

A route to making research outputs openly accessible to all by publishing articles or books open access on a publisher’s platform. Content published via the gold OA route is accessible immediately on publication, typically under an open licence (eg CC BY), and usually requires payment of an article processing charge. Unlike green OA, gold OA provides access to the version of record, and is independent of subscription income.

Hybrid journal 

A subscription journal that offers authors the option to publish open access at the article level. Most of Springer Nature’s subscription-based journals offer article-level open access, known as “hybrid OA”.

License to publish 

An agreement between an author and a publisher that grants the publisher the rights to publish, distribute, and manage the copyrights of a work, while the author retains their rights under copyright. All licences used by Springer Nature require that all authors and the article version are credited when anyone reuses the publication, so that authors are always recognised for their work. 

Non-OA content 

Research outputs that are published under a subscription model (also known as a ‘traditional model’), where access is restricted to journal subscribers. The accepted manuscript can typically only be self-archived after an embargo period. No article processing charge is required, though some journals may apply page or colour charges. 

Open access (OA) 

A route to publishing that ensures the free, immediate, online availability of research outputs such as journal articles or books, combined with the rights to use these outputs fully in the digital environment. OA content is open to all, with no access fees. 

Open access agreement 

An arrangement between Springer Nature and institutions, consortia or corporate customers that can partially fund or fully cover article processing charges for affiliated authors. There are two main types of open access agreements at Springer Nature: transformative agreements (TAs) and fully OA agreements. 

Open Choice 

Springer Nature’s Open Choice programme allows authors to choose OA publication in the majority of Springer Nature’s subscription-based journals. 

Open code 

Springer Nature has a standard research code policy for our journals and books, based on transparency and public sharing of newly developed code. This policy applies to all new computer programming code, software programs, macros etc that are developed as part of the research, and are necessary to interpret and replicate the conclusions reported in a research article, chapter or book. 

Open data 

There are many examples of underlying research data associated with journal articles or books which could be shared openly. Depending on the type of research you conduct and the discipline you work in, data can mean nearly any type of file, including text, audio, or images. Data can be qualitative, quantitative, analogue, or digital. Any output that underpins your research is valuable data. For data types which are mandated to be shared openly, please refer to Mandated data types.  

Springer Nature’s standard research data policy can be found here. 

Open protocols 

Protocols are written plans or step-by-step guides that explain exactly how you conduct your experiments or procedures or collect your data. Along with data and code, they form key elements of open science by enabling researchers to properly interpret, then replicate, build on, and validate each other’s work.

OA fee 

See ‘Article Processing Charges (APCs)’. 

OA book partnerships 

An agreement with Springer Nature that enables individual institutions to partially fund or fully cover book or chapter processing charges for affiliated authors or for authors with research grants from their institution. 

OA transition

A publisher or institution's commitment to shift from traditional subscription-based publishing models to open access to make scholarly research freely accessible to the public. 

Open research

The free, immediate, online availability of all research outputs, such as data and code. 

Open Science (OS)

A practice where researchers open all outputs from their research, including publications and preprints, data, code, protocols, methods, and practices such as open peer review can be employed.

Publish and read / PAR / P&R 

The PAR or ‘publish and read’ fee is a combined payment model that covers both the costs of open access publishing and reading access to a publisher's journal portfolio.  

Publishing model 

The specific method a publisher uses to determine how readers can access published research, such as through a one-off purchase, a subscription, or open access. 

Publish subscription 

See ‘Non-OA Content’. 

Repository 

An archive for collecting, preserving and disseminating digital copies of the intellectual output of a funding body or an institution, particularly a research institution. Springer Nature encourages authors to submit data to discipline-specific, community-recognised repositories where possible. 

Self-archiving 

The process by which an author makes their accepted manuscript (AM) publicly available online after an embargo period. Springer Nature permits the self-archiving of AMs published under a subscription model on personal websites and/or in funder or institutional repositories, for public release after an embargo period. Authors publishing via the gold open access route are encouraged to deposit the final published PDF in their institutional repository or any suitable subject repository on publication. 

Subscription content  

See ‘Non-OA Content’.

Subscription journal 

A journal that offers authors the option to publish their article under a subscription model (also known as a “traditional model” and “non-open access model”), which means the article will only be available to subscribers of the journal. Authors will not be asked to pay an article processing charge, though some journals may apply page or colour charges.