Open access agreement for Germany

If you are a corresponding author^* affiliated with a German university or research institution, you are entitled to publish open access in our journals with fees covered by the German DEAL agreement.

More than 900 German institutions are eligible to participate in the agreement between Springer Nature and Projekt DEAL, meaning that corresponding authors^* affiliated with these institutions are eligible to publish their articles open access without being invoiced by Springer Nature. The agreement includes more than 2,000 hybrid journals across the Springer Nature portfolio (from January 2020) and more than 500 fully OA journals (from August 2020).

^{*Acting as main contact for Springer Nature correspondence after editorial acceptance.}

German DEAL author webinar - 13th October 2020

Access the webinar recording and slides here

What authors need to know

You must be the corresponding author^* of the article.
Article types eligible under this agreement are: Original Paper, Review Paper, Brief Communication, Editorial Notes⁺, Book Reviews⁺, Letters⁺ and Reports⁺.
Your article(s) accepted for publication in Springer Open Choice (hybrid) journals must have a publication date of 1 January 2020 or later in order to be covered by the agreement. Your article(s) accepted for publication in BMC, SpringerOpen and Nature open access journals must have a publication date of 1 August 2020 or later in order to be covered by the agreement.

You must be affiliated with an eligible institution.
You must explicitly state your primary affiliation in the published manuscript, which is the institution at which the bulk of the research for the article was conducted.
You must identify yourself during the author identification process (you will be asked to do this once your article has been accepted for publication). The institution selected during this process should be your primary affiliation, as this institution will be asked to verify eligibility and will be billed if the article is approved.

^{*Acting as main contact for Springer Nature correspondence after editorial acceptance.}

^{+Hybrid journals only. Non-research articles in fully open access journals will not be covered by this agreement.}

Author guide

Author guide - Germany OA agreement

(PDF, 135.84 KB)

Publishing open access

Check the list of eligible institutions that are included in the agreement (link opens a download hosted by MPDL Services).

Institution list (XLSX)

Check the list of journals that are included in the agreement (link opens a download hosted by MPDL Services).

Journal list (XLSX)

Ready to publish?

FAQs

Who is considered the corresponding author?

The corresponding author is defined as the person who handles the manuscript and correspondence during the publication process – from manuscript correction and proof reading, to handling the revisions and re-submission of revised manuscripts, up to the acceptance of the manuscripts. The corresponding author acts as the main contact for Springer Nature correspondence after editorial acceptance.

The corresponding author has the authority to act on behalf of all co-authors in all matters pertaining to publication of the manuscript, including supplementary material. They are also responsible for obtaining such agreements and for informing the co-authors of the manuscript’s status throughout the submission, review and publication processes.

In addition, the corresponding author of the article who is affiliated to an eligible institution shall complete the author identification process and act as the point of contact for any enquiries after the paper is published.

How can I identify myself as eligible?

If you can say ‘yes’ to these statements, your article is ready for publication under the open access agreement for Germany.

- I am the corresponding author^*.

- I am affiliated with an eligible institution and can identify myself with at least one of the methods of recognition shown in the image below.

- My article matches one of these types: Original Paper, Review Paper, Brief Communication, Editorial Notes⁺, Book Reviews⁺, Letters⁺ and Reports⁺.

Agreement author identification img © Springer Nature

Upon acceptance of your article, you'll also be prompted to provide your primary institutional affiliation.

^{*Acting as main contact for Springer Nature correspondence after editorial acceptance.}

^{+Hybrid journals only. Non-research articles in fully open access journals will not be covered by this agreement.}

How do I know if my article has been approved?

The approval manager at your institution will approve your article's eligibility based on your institutional affiliation, article type and journal name.

Once your article is approved by your institution, you will be notified by email and your article will proceed to publication.

How is payment made for my article?

As an individual author, you will not be invoiced by Springer Nature for OA publication. These fees are initially being covered by the DEAL main contract Springer Nature concluded with the Max Planck Digital Library Services GmbH (MPDL Services), who centrally coordinates the financial contributions of German institutions.

Learn more about Projekt DEAL here or speak to your university/ library on how they manage this agreement.

What if I'm not covered by the agreement?

There are still plenty of ways to find funding for your article processing charge (APC). Visit our open access funding page to check whether your institution or research funder makes OA funding available.

Is this the same as Springer Compact?

The Springer Nature Projekt DEAL agreement covers publishing fees for Springer hybrid journals and from 1st August also fully open access publishing (see below). Corresponding authors^*affiliated with German institutions can publish their research open access with Springer.

From August 2020, the agreement will also cover publications in Springer Nature's fully open access journals. Imprints included are: BMC, Nature Research, Palgrave and SpringerOpen.

The links in the 'Publishing open access' section of this page provide more detail about participating institutions and journals that are currently eligible.

^{*Acting as main contact for Springer Nature correspondence after editorial acceptance.}

Why has this agreement been reached?

Through this agreement, Projekt DEAL has repurposed former subscription spending to finance open access publication. Corresponding authors^* affiliated with German institutions can publish their research open access in Springer hybrid journals, and will also have access to read subscription content from these journals.

From August 2020, a 20% discount on the publishing fee will be applied to all content published through the open access agreement for Germany in BMC journals and SpringerOpen journals. Authors will not be invoiced by Springer Nature and the 20% discount applies to the fees paid centrally.

^{*Acting as main contact for Springer Nature correspondence after editorial acceptance.}

Are discounts or waivers available to me as an author?

The Springer Nature Projekt DEAL agreement provides significant savings on the list APCs of the vast majority of Springer Nature open access journals for all DEAL institutions and their authors. As such, we do not provide ad hoc waivers or discounts for authors from a DEAL institution on the grounds of financial need.

Some authors, in their capacity as Editorial Board Members or reviewers, may be entitled to additional discounts or waivers on APCs in certain journals. In these instances, the extra waiver or discount percentage will be applied on top of the APC amount as defined under the conditions of the DEAL agreement, on article acceptance.

Payment for open access publishing under the Springer Nature Projekt DEAL agreement is centralized, and we advise authors to speak to their institution to clarify how costs of APCs are handled at their institution.

What happens with BMC and SpringerOpen memberships?

The Germany country-level agreement will absorb any BMC memberships of participating institutions.

Articles published in BMC or SpringerOpen journals through July 2020 will be charged to your institution’s BMC membership. Any articles published from August 2020 will be identified as part of the new agreement and be charged to DEAL (even if previously submitted under your membership).

The author identification process will be slightly different for the new agreement. For BMC memberships, eligible authors are identified at submission. For the DEAL open access agreement for Germany, identification will happen at the point of acceptance. This means that if you have submitted your article under a BMC membership but publication happens in August 2020, or later, you will need to re-confirm your institutional affiliation at acceptance.

Who can I contact for more information?

Please email us at oa.verification@springernature.com if you need further assistance.

Alternatively, visit DEAL’s FAQ for authors.