No Agreement with Springer Nature as of 01 January 2026
In brief
Contract negotiations between the swissuniversities and the publisher Springer Nature have not yet yielded any results. As the current agreement expired at the end of 2025, Switzerland is now in a no-deal situation with Springer Nature starting 01 January 2026.
What does this mean for the academic community in Switzerland?
Read access:
Articles published in Springer Nature journals from January 1, 2026 onwards will no longer be accessible unless they are published in open access. Previously subscribed volumes of Springer Nature journals will remain accessible.
Alternative access to articles in Springer Nature journals:
No access via UZH? Your options
Request service (free of charge during the no-deal situation)
Publishing:
Authors can continue to publish with Springer Natue journals, but the costs for Open Access publications will no longer be covered by UZH.
Do you publish in a hybrid journal?
If your chosen journal offers the option of open access, it is a hybrid journal.
- What can you do? You can publish without open access (“closed access”) and will not have to pay any APCs.
- Are you funded by the SNSF? If you have to meet SNSF requirements, you can instead republish your manuscript in the institutional repository ZORA. The SNSF does not pay APCs in hybrid journals.
How can I republish (secondary publication) in ZORA?
Do you publish in a gold open access journal?
If all articles in your journal are published in open access and open access is the only option, it is a gold open access journal.
- What can you do? swissuniversities and the University Library recommend that you do not pay any APCs to Springer, as this weakens Switzerland's position in contract negotiations. This also applies to APCs in gold open access journals. Instead, authors are encouraged to publish in other journals.
- Are you funded by the SNSF? In principle, the SNSF pays for publications in gold open access journals. However, the SNSF has decided (as in previous cases) to join the universities and swissuniversities and will not pay APCs to Springer journals until a new agreement has been signed.
How you can support the contract negotiations
In order to strengthen Switzerland's position in the publishing negotiations, swissuniversities recommends not paying APCs to Springer Nature journals and instead using other publication channels.
Questions?
Please contact the University Library if you have any questions about reading access or publishing:
Reading access: emedia@ub.uzh.ch
Open access publishing: oa@ub.uzh.ch
Further information:
More information from the University Library
Overview and FAQs from swissuniversities
Open Science Services