Springer Nature: Journals
The second national DEAL contract enables LUH researchers to publish research results in Open Access by default - at no personal cost.
The contract comes into force retroactively as of 1 January 2020. It initially runs until December 2023.
What does this mean for you as a researcher at LUH?
- As of 1 January 2020, you will publish your articles in most Springer Nature journals in open access without incurring any personal costs.
- TIB will settle the costs centrally.
- Open Access will become the standard for authors at LUH - without any further effort, you continue to publish as usual.
The contract covers both the publisher's hybrid journals and the genuine Open Access journals.
However, please note the different launch dates.
- Start date for hybrid journals ("Open Choice"): 1 January 2020
- Start date for fully open access journals: 1 August 2020
The date of the online publication is decisive ("Online Publication Date").
A list of journals can be found here (XLSX).
Which requirements must be fulfilled?
- You are a researcher at Leibniz Universität Hannover and submit the paper as the responsible Corresponding Author.
- You must clearly indicate your institutional affiliation when submitting your paper.
- Your article is one of the following article types:
- In hybrid journals ("Open Choice"): original paper, review paper, letter communication, editorial notes, book reviews, letters, reports.
- In Open Access journals ("Fully Open Access"): Original Paper, Review Paper, Brief Communication
- In specialist medical journals ("Facharztzeitschrift"): Original Paper, Review Paper, Brief Communication
This is the procedure:
As soon as the article has been accepted for publication, you will receive an e-mail from the publisher to complete the publication process.
- You will be asked to confirm your institutional affiliation.
- Please enter your institutional affiliation (in English) when prompted by the system. Even if you belong to more than one participating institution, you should only indicate one affiliation when your manuscript is accepted so that the costs can be allocated to the correct institution. Multiple institutional affiliations may be listed in the published article itself.
- If you use your institutional email, your eligibility to publish Open Access under the LUH’s agreement will be automatically recognised.
- If you submit your article while logged into your institution's network, the IP range and thus your eligibility will be detected based on your location. We recommend submitting your article from the LUH network.
- Agree to the Open Access license when prompted.
- The TIB will now be informed about your article and asked to confirm if you are eligible for the DEAL contract.
- As soon as the TIB has approved your article, you will be informed by a corresponding message. This may take no more than three days. The article will then be published immediately in Open Access. This will not incur any costs for you. The costs for publication are paid centrally by the TIB. If the article has been rejected by the TIB as not eligible, you will be informed by an appropriate message and asked to proceed with the payment options. An article may be rejected based on the type of article or affiliation. You can then either raise the costs for the article elsewhere or, if published in a hybrid journal, publish your article free of charge in closed access.
Please contact us if you have any problems with your submission.
Possibly there is no error. The publisher holds some journals that do not offer an Open Access option ("subscription only"). Furthermore, articles in the approximately 70 Springer Nature specialist journals are only eligible for funding if they are of the "research article" type and have not been requested.
The costs are also then paid centrally by the TIB on the basis of special funds which LUH makes available specifically for this purpose and for a limited period. Both institutions thus recognize the special significance of this contract for the German science landscape. Nevertheless, the TIB reaffirms the importance of uniform and sustainable cost ceilings for Article Processing Charges.
Yes, if you are one of the approximately 700 scientific institutions listed here (Project DEAL Institutions), you can publish in Open Access by default at no personal cost. The national contract allows you to do so regardless of whether your institution participates in the contract or not. However, other institutions will then have to bear the costs.
For your own planning security, please check, however, whether your institution has signed the contract, in particular what arrangements have been made locally for the transfer of APCs from the pure OA journals ("Fully Open Access") (central transfer or subsequent reallocation).
Further information
- Springer Nature also provides an information page
- Project DEAL offers information and practical support under DEAL Operations
