Opening doors to discovery at Springer Nature

Author: Prerna Shetty

The Springer Nature Opening Doors internship is a paid opportunity for students and recent graduates to gain experience in research, education and science news publishing in our journals, books or magazines.

Many group perspectives are currently underrepresented in the publishing industry. We believe that diverse perspectives drive progress, which is why we created this internship. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and particularly encourage candidates from groups historically underrepresented in publishing to apply.

Since its inception, the programme has welcomed interns in the UK, US, Germany, China and the Netherlands, with the successful applicants gaining the chance to learn more about the publishing industry and its different career pathways.

To celebrate Work in Publishing week 2025, we asked Prerna Shetty, Editorial Data Analyst intern based in London, to talk us through the highlights of her placement with Springer Nature.

Over the past five months, I have had the privilege of working as an Editorial Data Analyst Intern with Nature Portfolio as part of Springer Nature’s Opening Doors internship scheme. I was immediately drawn to the programme and its purpose when I first came across it. Having completed my Masters in Business Analytics, where my dissertation examined how socio-economic inequities shape access to healthcare through data-driven methods, I was eager to apply those skills in a setting where data could make a broader social and structural impact and Springer Nature’s mission to make research useful for and usable by all reflected that.

During my internship, I worked on a couple of projects that looked at the intersection of data, inclusion and publishing practice. One of them was the Early Career Researcher (ECR) Co-review Programme, an initiative giving early-career researchers hands-on peer review experience under the guidance of senior reviewers. It supports professional growth and helps build a more inclusive, sustainable reviewer community.

My work focused on analysing how participation in the programme varies by career stage, gender, country, and discipline, using editorial and reviewer data. The findings were both encouraging and illuminating. We found that the programme, in addition to training ECRs, has helped close gender gaps in peer review, including in fields where participation is currently uneven. It also revealed how research communities differ across countries and disciplines, showing the importance of local context. What stood out to me was that involving ECRs didn’t affect the efficiency of the review process, showing that inclusion and performance can go hand in hand.

Presenting these findings to my team has been one of the most rewarding moments of my internship. Seeing how results from the analysis shaped discussions about the programme’s impact and future direction made me realise that the work I was doing could directly inform how Springer Nature supports research communities. It was fulfilling to know that my analysis could highlight the value of initiatives like the ECR Co-review Programme across Nature Portfolio journals.

Personally, what I’ve loved about working at Springer Nature is how open and supportive everyone is. From the start, I felt comfortable asking questions, sharing ideas, and learning by doing. The editors, data analysts, and mentors I worked with were generous with their time and genuinely cared about helping me grow. Being in that kind of environment made learning new things easy and the experience deeply rewarding.

As my internship comes to an end, I find myself reflecting on how much this experience has shaped me. It has strengthened my interest in using data to inform inclusion, policy, and accessibility within research. I’ve always loved analytics as a discipline, but I’ve realised that I find it most meaningful when it helps create more equitable systems.

I’m really grateful to my manager, Nathalie Le Bot, and my mentor, Anna Patterson, for believing in me from the start and supporting me throughout the internship. Their guidance and encouragement made all the difference. I also want to thank Joshua Nwaogu, my employee network buddy, who was such a great support to have outside the teams I worked with and was always a kind ear beyond work. And a big thanks to Sonja Schmid, Riikka Jokinen, Sowmya Swaminathan, and Niki Scaplehorn for being so generous with their time and making learning such a positive experience.

To anyone considering applying to Opening Doors, I’d say absolutely go for it. You’ll gain first-hand insight into how academic publishing works in practice. It’s a community that values curiosity, collaboration, and compassion, which makes the experience both inspiring and rewarding. It’s shown me that inclusion and innovation go hand in hand, and that when publishers make space for a wide range of perspectives and experiences, the entire research ecosystem becomes stronger and more impactful.