Introduction

Springer Nature—Research with community impact

Springer as part of Springer Nature

As an imprint of Springer Nature, Springer sits (and works) alongside Springer Nature’s other imprints, including BMC, Nature, Palgrave Macmillan, and Apress. Springer Nature's range of imprints include books and journals that cover a wide breadth of disciplines meaning that every author can find a home for their work.

From the outset, Springer Nature is committed to advancing discovery, by publishing robust and insightful research in the world’s most influential journals, as well as supporting the development of new areas of knowledge. All with a determination to make ideas and information accessible globally. Furthermore, we are the largest academic book publisher, with a substantial portfolio of books that span across Science, Technology, Medicine and Humanities and Social Sciences.

Springer Nature is focused on connecting our communities quickly and easily to the most relevant and important research, through our wide portfolio of content that cover the full range of research disciplines. 2021 saw Springer Nature improve its portfolio quality.

Springer’s communities

In May 2022, Springer celebrated 180 years of supporting researchers (as authors and readers) and librarians. This report shows Springer’s evolution from humble beginnings to the impact it has today. Springer has helped drive many changes in the publishing landscape, including in digitalization and open access (OA).

In this report, you’ll learn about Springer Nature and the part that the Springer imprint has within it. It is broken down to focus on the three main communities that we partner with, value highly and deliver impact to:

Authors—insights into the options, benefits, and experiences of publishing with us
Editors—celebrating our partners in the community
Libraries—aligning our goals to aid research.

Springer Nature journals
gained the most number 1
JCR category rankings,
compared to our competitors:

Journals with number 1 ranking
	2020	2021	Delta
Springer Nature	47	56	+9
Elsevier	68	72	+4
Wiley	20	19	-1
Taylor & Francis	15	10	-5
MDPI	0	0	0
Hindawi	0	0	0
Frontiers	1	0	-1
Total Market	236	238

Source: JCR 2021

180 years of community-focused innovation

Over the past 180 years, Springer has:

Paved the way in digitalization and discoverability, building and launching one of the earliest online information services dedicated to scientific research—LINK (today’s SpringerLink);
Pioneered models and approach towards
eBooks and access and was the first publisher to digitize its entire back catalog which included over 100,000 book titles published since the 1840s to present day;
Been at the cutting edge of research, and following the acquisition of BMC in the mid 2000s Springer launched SpringerOpen and established one of the first OA book programs, making the publisher at the time, not only the largest OA publisher but also the one pioneering sustainable routes to OA for all;

Streamlined publishing models to better support authors and editors by setting up and co-founding the “Scientific Publishing Services”
—a service provider for publisher focusing on production and copy editing—becoming an industry model followed by others for more effective digital publishing;
Remained an active voice with a social mission
—from Julius Springer’s work to improve copyright law at the German Booksellers Association in the 1840s to its championing of OA policies and sustainable publishing routes today via active engagement with the community, policy and organizational bodies, as well as through Springboard, the publisher’s open research blog.

Springer is committed to
open science

As early as 2004, Springer pioneered the hybrid model—allowing authors to publish OA in subscription journals. Shortly thereafter, BMC—the world’s founding OA publisher that had launched six years earlier—joined the Springer family, and that pioneering spirit is still the foundation for Springer’s drive to transform research into open science.

But Springer is also the only publisher to combine this transformational ethos with a 180 year legacy. Which means that when you publish OA with Springer, you get the best aspects of both. Which is why authors publishing OA with Springer Nature see:

OA transition continues

As OA has been part of the Springer DNA now for nearly 20 years, the fully OA journals have played an important role in our transition to OA as Springer Nature. Springer Nature's first fully OA annual report was published in August 2022, to measure the collective reach, value and tangible impact our OA journals are offering authors, readers and the wider research community.

Earlier this year, Springer Nature celebrated the milestone of publishing 1 million OA articles.

In the video below Professor Stephan Lewandowsky shares his motives behind publishing his work OA.