Skip to main content
Transformative Agreements as Driver of Open Access

Transformative Agreements as Driver of Open Access

December 2024

Summary

December 18, 2024

This report highlights how TAs are enabling a global shift towards OA, offering significant benefits to institutions, researchers, and the broader academic community. In particular, the three case studies from the USA, South Africa, and Slovenia show how partners at different stages of the OA transition can benefit from TAs. 

New data released by Springer Nature shows the immediate impact Transformative Agreements (TA) have on driving global open access (OA) output, with some countries seeing increases in OA uptake of up to 78% in the first year of their TA.  

“Accelerating open access at scale – a look at three transformative agreements” analyses data from across Springer Nature’s TAs with a specific focus on - LYRASIS (USA), SANLiC (South Africa), and the CTK Consortium (Slovenia). It shows that in the first year after their TAs went live: 

  • LYRASIS has seen an immediate growth in OA publications with 533 articles published in the first 6 months of its TA going live, compared to 140 articles in the entire previous 12-month period. 
  • South Africa saw an increase in OA uptake from 10% pre-TA to 78% during first year of TA. 
  • Slovenia saw an increase in OA uptake from 19% pre-TA to 73%. 
  • Other countries whose TAs went live in 2023 have also seen an increase in OA uptake of between 14%-78%, with Portugal seeing the biggest change from 6%-72% (2). 

Other notable findings from the white paper align with data presented in the publisher’s most recent OA report, demonstrating the role TAs have in:  

  • Increasing usage of subscription content - content by affiliated researchers for each of the case study countries increased by as much as 24% in the first year of the agreement. 
  • Increasing equity across disciplines - in several Springer Nature TAs, the percentage of HSS articles published OA has increased by over 2000%. In Slovenia and South Africa OA uptake in HSS increased by over 600% and 800% respectively (from 12% and 9% uptake in year before TA). 
  • Increasing equity across institutions and researchers – by enabling OA publishing for more researchers, including those from historically underfunded areas such as lower research-intensive institutions and early career researchers.   

Full details are included in the Springer-Nature press release. 
 

Abstract

Springer Nature is a Voting Member organization of NISO. 

The report, Accelerating Open Access at Scale, is available to view on the organizational website.