Springer open publishing program

The program allowed authors affiliated with Polish academic institutions to publish, on an open-access basis (CC-BY license), a certain number of articles per year in Springer journals, see list:

https://vls.icm.edu.pl/zasady/2026/Springer/springer_publishing_list_2026.xlsx

The program in 2026 includes 1,913 hybrid journals from Springer’s core collection, 62 Springer Open journals (which switched from a hybrid to a fully open model after 2022), and 20 ADIS hybrid journals. Authors submitting their articles to fully open-access journals covered by the program should be aware of the risk that the article may be accepted after the 2026 pool has been exhausted and will need to be self-funded by the author (for hybrid journals, the subscription publication option remains available).

The program covers Original Papers, Review Papers, Brief Communications, and Continuing Education articles. The program does not cover Editorial Notes, News, or Letters.

The procedure deciding about open publishing begins after a positive review of the article, when the corresponding author receives an e-mail from the publishing house informing about the acceptance of the article for publication. The message will contain a link to complete the publication process. The link will take you to a page where you will need to click “Request login email”, after which the author will receive a second email with a link to the Open Access Systems Solution web form, which should be filled in by the corresponding author, see presentation of the form:

https://vls.icm.edu.pl/zasady/2021/Springer/OA/OASiS_rollout_comms_slidedeck_comm_ICM.pdf

Note: the presentation is intended only for institutions authorized to use the program and can be downloaded only from the IP numbers of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences or from the IP numbers of other academic institutions registered in the Library of Virtual Science (WBN).

If, at the time of filling in the form, the number of articles in the program for a given year is not yet exhausted and the system recognizes the selected institution as belonging to the program, the form will display the information “Open access at no cost to you” (see presentation, page 6), which applies to a national agreement covering all Polish academic institutions registered for the Springer license. After clicking on “Yes, submit for approval”, the work will be sent to the local administrator for review, of which the author will be notified by email (see presentation, p. 8). The author will be informed about the result of the verification by another email (pages 9 and 10).

The Open Access Systems Solution form is used by Springer to support most hybrid journals, with the exception of some journals that have been marked as custom in the journal list in column H (Standard Hybrid Specific Workflow):

https://vls.icm.edu.pl/zasady/2025/Springer/Publishing_List_ICM_Poland_2025.xlsx

For these journals, the corresponding author will receive special instructions from the editorial office.

The Open Access Systems Solution form only offers the standard CC BY open licence type, which is compatible with Plan S and recommended by e.g. NCN. However, if an author wishes to publish his/her article under a CC BY-NC licence, he/she should notify the publisher at ORSupport@springernature.com at the time of or immediately after the first submission of the article to the journal. Upon acceptance of such an article, the author will receive a special form for the non-standard licence from the publisher. In the non-standard cases described above, the article information is also sent to the local administrator at the institution for affiliation verification.

Any questions regarding open publishing in hybrid journals can be directed to Springer Nature at oa.verification@springer.com and to WBN at wbn@icm.edu.pl.

Contact at SGGW:
Open Science Department Main Library
PhD Agnieszka Adamiec, MSc Dominika Semeniuk, tel. 22 59 35 720; e-mail – otwartanauka@sggw.edu.pl