Max Planck Society researchers to benefit from open access agreement with Springer

Springer Compact allows open access publishing without administrative obstacles or cost barriers

New York | Heidelberg, 21 October 2015

Springer and the Max Planck Digital Library in Germany have signed an agreement which allows Max Planck researchers to publish their papers open access in more than 1,600 Springer subscription journals and access to over 2,000 Springer journals in total. The Springer Compact agreement, made for the first time with a large single research institution, combines reading and open access publishing in one payment scheme. A pilot in nature, its aim is to gain experience to help prepare a framework for a sustainable model of open access publishing and access to Springer’s subscription journals. Springer has already made similar pilot agreements with the Association of Dutch Universities and the Austrian Academic Library Consortium.

The Max Planck Society is a co-founder of the international open access movement. Making its scientists’ research findings available for all to read, free of access barriers whenever possible, is a key aspiration of the society. The agreement with Springer will minimize the administrative burden and costs of open access publishing for Max Planck researchers, making the publishing process easier and more efficient.

Juliane Ritt, Executive Vice President Global Hybrid OA Initiatives at Springer, said: “I am very pleased that the Max Planck Society and Springer have agreed on this major open access pilot. We enter into an innovative area where the combination of ‘publishing in Springer journals and accessing them’ creates a revolutionary new type of partnership. An important aspect of this agreement allows us to jointly develop efficient and reliable workflows which will lead to more streamlined open access publishing.”

Frank Sander, General Manager of the Max Planck Digital Library, said, “With this new agreement we respond to the requests from our researchers and can now provide them with substantial new open access opportunities while maintaining our access levels. Springer journals will become more attractive as they make our research results more visible to others. Having advocated such models for many years, we are now especially pleased to travel this new road together with Springer as one of the most relevant publishers for the Max Planck Society.”

The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (www.mpg.de/en) is an independent, non-profit research organization. Focusing on research fields that are particularly innovative, the 83 Max Planck Institutes conduct basic research in the service of the general public in the natural sciences, life sciences, social sciences, and the humanities. More than 15,000 studies by its researchers are published each year in internationally renowned scientific journals.

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