Contributed Article


Springer

Springer is one of the largest STM publishers in the world, publishing about 2000 journal titles, containing about 180.000 articles per year, and publishing about 5000 new book titles yearly. Next to this the company publishes database products like Springer reference, Springer protocols and Springer images.

All Springer content is published at SpringerLink, with currently over 5 million documents. About 70.000 book titles are available as e-books now on this platform.

Springer and gold open access

Springer's open access policy is pragmatic and not ideology centered. The company has always recognized the apparent need for open access publishing and has decided to serve the needs of the scientists and their communities.

Springer pioneered the hybrid model with Springer Open Choice, leaving the choice of how to publish with the author or her/his funder. After acceptance of an article the author is asked to decide which choice (s)he makes, either transfer copyright and get published in the subscription mode, or pay an Article Processing Fee, retain the copyright and be published with open access under a CC license attribution, non commercial.

BioMed Central and Springer Open

In 2008 Springer decided to acquire BioMed Central, the world's largest open access publisher, now publishing about 220 journals with full open access. BioMed Central is most active in the life sciences and medicine fields, and is very successfully growing the number of open access journals and articles in these scientific communities.

This success is for Springer a clear indicator that open access is there to stay. As a result the company decided to start open access journals in many other scientific subjects, under the SpringerOpen brand. By doing that, it provides the scientists that need or want to publish with open access an opportunity, next to the Springer Open Choice option. In that process the possible acquisition of quality open access journals (like the EURASIP journals) is looked at, it will speed up the impact of the SpringerOpen journals.

Acquiring the EURASIP and some other journals from Hindawi is a great opportunity to boost the quality and the impact of the SpringerOpen program. For all journals, handling (from submition to publication) is done on the platform of BioMed Central, ensuring a smooth publishing experience for the authors.

Springer is delighted to welcome the EURASIP journals to its portfolio. Springer will grow the impact of the journals in the respective communities and of course the impact of the Springer open access activities.

For more information look at www.springeropen.com, www.biomedcentral.com, www.springerlink.com.