Read & Publish Agreement with Springer Nature
Through a comprehensive Read & Publish agreement with Springer Nature, UZH researchers gain full access to articles and the opportunity to publish their work Open Access in the Springer Nature portfolio.
On 10 June 2026, a working group of swissuniversities and the Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries signed a comprehensive Read & Publish agreement with Springer Nature. It builds on the agreement from 2023 to 2025 and expands the Gold Open Access offering as well as the Nature journals.
As a result, researchers at the University of Zurich, the university hospitals, and other Swiss higher education institutions receive both extensive reading access and the opportunity to publish Open Access within the Springer Nature portfolio.
The Terms
Under the agreement, members of the University of Zurich and the university hospitals receive full reading access to the Springer portfolio as well as access to Nature journals (except for some Nature Reviews journals). Research results can be published Open Access in around 2’700 Springer Nature journals.
The agreement includes an article quota aligned with the expected needs of Swiss researchers (Gold OA and Nature Hybrid), while no cap applies to Springer hybrid journals. With the integration of the Gold Open Access portfolio, the agreement now achieves broad coverage within the Springer Nature portfolio. This has made it possible to incorporate a previously fast-growing and difficult-to-control cost area into a joint negotiation framework.
Timeline for implementation
Members of the University of Zurich and the university hospitals can publish their accepted articles Open Access free of charge under the agreement as of 10 June 2026, both in hybrid Springer and Nature journals as well as in Gold Open Access journals.
For hybrid journals: Articles that have been published as “closed access” since 1 January 2026 can be converted to Open Access retrospectively. This conversion process will start in the coming weeks and eligible authors will be contacted by Springer Nature.
For Gold Open Access articles: For articles where the Open Access publication workflow was completed between 1 January and 10 June 2026, and for which an invoice has already been issued, neither refunds nor retrospective billing under the agreement are possible.
Policy on the use of AI
The agreement explicitly regulates the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in connection with licensed content. It allows members of Swiss higher education institutions to make broad use of AI tools to analyse Springer Nature publications in research, teaching and innovation.
The use of the content for training AI systems or sharing it with third parties is not permitted.
However, its use for the development of non-commercial AI applications in research and teaching is allowed. Open Access publications are subject solely to their respective licence terms and may otherwise be used without restriction.
Publisher negotiations
Negotiations with Springer Nature took place as part of the third round of the so-called “Big Deal negotiations Open-access negotiations with major scholarly publishers are a central component of the Swiss Open Access strategy of swissuniversities which aims to make the results of publicly funded research immediately and freely available to all.
Further information from swissuniversities is available under Publisher negotiations with Springer Nature
Additional details on Open Access publishing conditions can be found on the University Library website under Coverage of Publication Charges under «Springer Nature».
If you have any questions, please contact the Open Science Services team:
oa@ub.uzh.ch