180 Years of heritage
With our unmatched reputation as custodians of the quality and integrity of research, the journals we publish are among the most influential in the world.
180 Years of heritage
With our unmatched reputation as custodians of the quality and integrity of research, the journals we publish are among the most influential in the world.
Trust matters
In a time of technological change and scientific progress, the world needs the dependable content we share.
94% of our customers agree that we publish ‘rigorous research that can be trusted’
Trust matters
In a time of technological change and scientific progress, the world needs the dependable content we share.
Knowledge without boundaries
Finding solutions requires teamwork, cross-disciplinary working and an openness to views that challenge us.
We’ve published more than 390,000 SDG-relevant articles or book chapters since 2015
Knowledge without boundaries
Finding solutions requires teamwork, cross-disciplinary working and an openness to views that challenge us.
Curiosity drives progress
If innovation is the beating heart of our business, then curiosity is the air we breathe.
We’ve published more than one million open access articles to date
Curiosity drives progress
If innovation is the beating heart of our business, then curiosity is the air we breathe.
Powered by our people
Success comes from giving our talented people the freedom to be bold and to innovate.
Our employee networks have 1,400+ members
Powered by our people
Success comes from giving our talented people the freedom to be bold and to innovate.
In this, our first progress report, we’re sharing highlights from across our business: how we’re investing to support our communities and delivering on our mission to open doors to discovery.
For more than 20 years, Springer Nature has pioneered open access, making ever more of our journals and books free to read online. In 2021, we published our one millionth open access article, an industry first. We’re proud of the progress we’re making towards an open science future.
WHAT BINDS US TOGETHER
The lifelong journey of discovery – learning, being inspired, using knowledge to solve problems and leave the world in a better state – is part of what makes us human.
Springer Nature’s four business segments span this journey. For more on how they deliver for their customers and communities, click through to our progress report.
Education
Research
Health
Professional
Our sense of purpose, which we call opening doors to discovery, is something you can feel when working in any of our offices, anywhere in the world, because it is driven by our colleagues.
Chief Executive Officer
POWERED BY OUR PEOPLE
We provide the culture and environment for our talented people to do brilliant and rewarding work, treating them with fairness and respect and supporting their needs so that they can achieve their potential.
The climate emergency is one of the scientific and social issues that we’re dedicated to covering, to help people better understand the challenge we’re up against, and the most promising solutions. Our publication and our publisher, Springer Nature Group, take this responsibility very seriously.
Laura Helmuth
Editor in Chief Scientific American
Our goal is to shine a light on science in Africa and the scientists contributing to solving local and global problems whilst promoting scientific exchange across the continent.
Akinlabi Kazeem Jimoh
Chief Editor, Nature Africa
Sunny Menchu
Business Systems, Pune, India
By supporting an increasing number of regions on their path to a fully OA environment, we continue to deepen our commitment to a truly open science future.
Dagmar Laging
Vice President, Institutional Sales Europe
As a member and co-founder of the SN Disability and Neurodiversity Network who lives with cerebral palsy, I am delighted to see Springer Nature make the ‘Valuable 500’ commitment.
Leo Johnson
Anti-Piracy Investigations Manager
Rohan Subhedar
Senior Video Editor, Pune, India
Connecting with female role models who have broken barriers in their own fields has truly been empowering and has encouraged me to consider how I can contribute in my own environment.
Petty Charavitsidou
Journals Product Manager and member of the SN Women Global Committee
We have more than 9,000 employees around the world, and 1,400+ are members of our employee networks.
MAKING CONNECTIONS
OUR NETWORK IN NUMBERS1
We’re a source of trusted information published through our platforms;
our content has extensive reach; and we invest to support our communities.
Discover more about our networks
- 2021 figures, except where otherwise stated.
- Total item requests, using COUNTER 5 code of practice, journal articles and book chapters.
- Springer Nature offers the best value to authors when comparing average cost to the customer per article use.
For fully OA journals, the average cost per use is €0.24 per download, around 30% lower than the nearest pure OA competitor. - Includes IT-related operational spend.
JOINING IT ALL UP
(2021) We’re also making
additional investments
in our people, and in
our external editorial
communities.
It is our goal, year on year, to realise stable, profitable growth and long-term value for all our stakeholders, in a sustainable way.
ULRICH VEST
Chief Financial Officer
Research published by Springer Nature is used, shared and built upon by others more and more each year, enabling the research community to collaborate to develop solutions to the world’s biggest challenges.
Total downloads more than doubled
DOWNLOADS PER ARTICLE 1
Average citations per article up by 60%
AVERAGE CITATIONS PER ARTICLE 2
OA citations up 50%
AVERAGE CITATIONS PER OA ARTICLE 3
- Total item requests, using COUNTER 5 code of practice.
- Digital Science, Dimensions. Article citations in publication year and year-after publication year. Excludes 2021 articles as 2022 citations not yet complete.
- Includes articles in transformative and fully OA journals.
Citations per fully OA article, top eight publishers1
Average citations per article
- Digital Science, Dimensions, fully OA articles published in 2020 with average citations in 2020 and 2021 per article. Chart taken from Springer Nature Advancing OA report, available at fullyopen.springernature.com.
SPOTLIGHT ON OPEN ACCESS
We are the most comprehensive OA research publisher, offering the option to publish articles OA in all our journals, across all academic disciplines. Our OA authors benefit from the highest levels of service, and their work has greater influence because of increased downloads and citations.
OA in Numbers1
0%
of our content was published OA
0%
OA growth in transformative journals
0%
of our OA articles were in fully OA journals
0.48
citations per article published in 2020
- 1. 2021 figures except where otherwise stated.
- 2. Includes content published in fully OA and transformative journals (TJs).
Citations per open access article grew by 50% in 2017-2020²
For more than 150 years, our flagship title Nature has been one of the world’s most prestigious and widely read academic journals. Together with the Nature-branded research journals, it publishes the finest peer-reviewed research in all fields of science and technology on the basis of its originality, importance and interdisciplinary interest. Nature also provides rapid, authoritative, insightful and arresting news and interpretation of topical and coming trends affecting science, scientists and the wider public.
Papers in Nature-branded research journals are cited around 17 times more and downloaded by institutional users around 27 times more than papers in typical journals.
Every day, 288 highly qualified specialist staff – including 200+ PhD trained editors – work on the creation of Nature and the Nature-branded research journals’ exceptional scientific content.
People look to scientists for news they can trust. At Springer Nature, we see it as our responsibility to combat falsehoods and ensure accurate understanding of the facts.
Standing up for science and scientific reasoning is increasingly important as we battle a growing tide of misinformation.
JOYCE LORIGAN
Group Head of Corporate Affairs
We’ve launched new campaigns to help take science to a wider audience.
In 2021, Nature’s multimedia team won several prestigious awards.
Investing in our people and in our communities
New teams to engage more with external editors and investing behind initiatives to make their lives easier.
Ramping up our sustainability programmes and increasing investment in energy-saving initiatives and education.
Championing diversity, equity, and inclusion in our communities, with improved data processes so we can monitor our progress.
