The 2022 - 2024 Springer Nature RAP agreement enables ANU authors to publish immediately to open access on the publisher's platform once the article has been accepted, with no transactional APCs.

The 2024 article cap on this agreement is 3,509 articles.

Included titles

This agreement allows authors from participating institutions to publish open access in 1,976 titles with no transactional APCs. This includes most titles across Springer Nature imprints including Springer, Palgrave, ADIS, and Academic Journals on Nature.com.

Please note: Nature titles are not included. 

View the full list of Springer Nature titles. This list includes annotations for excluded titles.

Eligible articles

Article types

Open access publishing covered under this RAP agreement includes the following article types:

• Original Paper: Standard article, generally presenting new results which may also be referred to as Original Research, Original Article, Original Paper or Research Paper. 
• Review Paper: Standard article, interpreting previously published results. 
• Brief Communication: Short article submitted for rapid publication that exhibits the same structure as a standard article.
• Continuing Education: Article forming integral part of further education (usually medical).

Authors may publish excluded article types as “closed access” or pay an article processing charge (if applicable) to make the article open access.

Acceptance date

Articles must have an acceptance date within the duration of this agreement (2022 - 2024) to be eligible to be published open access with no transactional APCs.

Number of included articles

• This agreement provides for an allowance of articles* to be published open access per year in 2022 - 2024 with no transactional APCs. 
• The allowance is a collective pool for all participating Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL) member institutions.
• Once the allowance is used, authors of any additional articles accepted in 2022 - 2024, may choose to publish articles as "closed access" or to pay an APC for the article to be published open access.

*The number of included articles for 2023 is calculated at 88% of the total number of articles from Australian authors at participating institutions published in Springer Nature titles in 2022.

Other charges

Other charges (including page and colour charges) will vary by imprint and may depend on whether Springer Nature owns the journal or if it is a society owned journal. These charges may not be covered under the agreement. Authors will be notified about options regarding colour and page charges through their communications with journal editors.

Page charges for Springer Nature owned journals will be waived. 

ANU corresponding authors may publish immediately to open access on the publisher's platform once the article has been accepted, with no transactional APCs. Page and colour charges may apply.

Author rights

Articles from authors at participating institutions may be published under the author's choice of the following licences:

• CC-BY
• CC-BY-NC.

The Creative Commons licenses allow reuse (some with conditions) while protecting the authors' rights of acknowledgment as authors. Authors retain copyright.

Researchers who require a CC-BY-NC-ND licence should contact the editors for the relevant journal.

How to submit your article for open access publishing

1. Follow the publisher's usual article submission process via the journal’s homepage.
2. On acceptance of the article, the publisher will ask the corresponding author to complete a form (publishing agreement).
3. The corresponding author selects open access and confirms the licence type (e.g. CC-BY).
4. The APC is automatically waived for authors who have 
   • used an ANU email address
   • selected ANU as their institutional affiliation from a drop down list.

Author identification

Authors will be identified as eligible for open access publishing by their 

• email address
• institutional affiliation
• IP address range.

Corresponding authors must use their institutional email address when submitting an article for publication in order for the publication to be approved to be published open access with no transactional APCs.

Corresponding authors should not use personal email addresses (e.g. Hotmail, Gmail). Doing so may result in delayed approval of the article or the article may not be approved to be published open access under the terms of the agreement. 

Number of included articles

• This agreement provides for an allowance of articles* by authors to be published open access in 2022 with no transactional APCs. 
• The allowance is a collective pool for all participating CAUL (Council of Australian University Librarians) Member institutions.
• Once the allowance is used, authors of any additional articles accepted in 2022, may choose to publish articles as "closed access" or pay an APC for the article to be published open access.