Springer Nature has expanded its transformative agreement (TA) with Couperin, the French consortium for higher education and research institutions. Initially launched in July 2024 with 17 participating institutions, the agreement will expand to cover 49 institutions in 2025, reflecting a major step forward in fostering open access publishing across France.
This multi-year agreement enables researchers at participating French institutions to publish their work open access (OA), significantly boosting the visibility and global impact of their research. In addition, it grants these institutions access to over 2,200 titles from Springer Nature's prestigious portfolio, including those under the Springer, Palgrave, and Adis imprints. This expansion highlights Springer Nature's continued commitment to one of Europe’s leading academic markets and its dedication to advancing open science.
The agreement underscores the success of transformative agreements in driving open access adoption worldwide, particularly in France, where open access remains a key strategic priority. The increased OA availability is seen as a means to enhance global collaboration, broaden research reach, and ensure equitable access to the latest scholarly work.
Springer Nature’s approach with Couperin aims to make the benefits of open access publishing available to even more researchers, ensuring that academic output is both visible and accessible to the global scientific community. Researchers from all institutions in the Couperin network can now join the agreement at any time, even if they are not current subscribers to Springer Nature journals.
The broader rollout of this agreement follows global trends where transformative agreements have significantly increased OA adoption. For instance, data from countries that implemented TAs in 2023 shows an increase in open access uptake from 14% to 78%. Notably, Portugal experienced the largest jump, with OA output rising from just 6% to 72%.
This collaboration between Springer Nature and Couperin sets a strong example of how institutions can come together to foster a more inclusive and accessible academic publishing ecosystem, enhancing the global dissemination of research while supporting the open access movement.
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