Springer Nature and Department of Atomic Energy, India sign Landmark Transformative Agreement to Drive Forward Open Research

NewsVoir
New Delhi [India], May 8: Springer Nature has agreed a landmark transformative agreement (TA) with the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), India. The agreement marks the first TA by any publicly funded department in India, which is a significant leap forward for India's research and academic community.
The deal will allow all 50+ centers affiliated to the DAE to read and publish Gold Open Access (OA) - an article is published immediately as OA in an online journal of book and is available for all to use and reuse from the moment it is published - in Springer Nature's 2,000+ hybrid journals across all disciplines. This agreement marks a significant milestone in the journey towards universal access to research findings and represents a collaborative effort to accelerate the transition to open science.
The deal is the latest development in Springer Nature's longstanding partnership with the DAE, India. As part of this collaboration, both Springer Nature and DAE will work together to promote open access principles and remove barriers to the dissemination of scholarly research. The agreement encompasses a range of initiatives designed to foster innovation, transparency, research integrity and accessibility in academic publishing. As part of Gold OA, the visibility and impact of Indian research will be enhanced, and its global reach will foster greater international collaboration and knowledge exchange.
Commenting on the agreement, Carolyn Honour, Chief Commercial Officer of Springer Nature Group, said, "I am delighted that the Department of Atomic Energy has chosen to extend its partnership with Springer Nature on their Open Science journey. This is the first time DAE has consolidated all its member subscription as a consortium and we are thrilled to embark on this transformative journey to advance scientific discovery, increase publishing options and reach for Indian researchers. This deal is a testament not only to our strong partnerships and experience in delivering sustainable transformative deals, but also to our commitment to drive positive change in the scholarly communication landscape and ensure that research findings are accessible to all."
Echoing these sentiments, Dr Arun Kumar Nayak, Head of Nuclear Controls and Planning Wing (NPCW) at the Department of Atomic Energy, who also led this project in the department said, "Our chairman was instrumental in taking these decisions and this is a historic moment for all the scientists and research scholars in the DAE family and the country. This deal also lays the foundation for many more such agreements in the future which will be instrumental in ensuring that our country's scientific temperament is known to the world."
Commenting further Dr Deepali Kuberkar, Head of the Department of Library Sciences, TMC & Coordinator, One DAE One Subscription (ODOS) said, "ODOS is an important turning point for DAE and its scientific community. We look forward to our collaboration with Springer Nature to help advance and spread the culture of knowledge and learning to better the world. Here on, our focus will be on publishing world class literature."
The deal will benefit 5,000+ researchers across DAE with simplified workflows and easy author journey. The partnership between Springer Nature and the DAE exemplifies a collaborative approach to advancing open access publishing and promoting the free exchange of knowledge. This transformative agreement will have a lasting impact on the academic publishing landscape in India and pave way for discussions for a potential national or regional agreement.
What is a Transformative Agreement (TA)?
TAs enable participating institutions to combine journal subscription (read) access along with open access (OA) publication costs (APCs). In addition to managing the cost and administration of OA, TAs offer authors an easy way to comply with funders' OA requirements.
Under a Transformative Agreement subscription access and OA publishing are brought together into one reading and publishing contract across a consortium of institutions. This means that researchers in those institutions can publish under the "gold" open access model, while also gaining access to research in subscription journals. Spearheaded by Springer Nature with the first such agreement signed with the Association of Dutch Universities, VSNU, Netherlands in 2014, these agreements make the administration of OA simpler for both the institutions participating and their researchers. In addition, these agreements enable a wider group of researchers to benefit from the enhanced discoverability, increased citation and increased usage of OA content, help to solve the problem that some academic disciplines lack OA funding (a centralized APC allows any researcher from the participating institution, regardless of academic discipline, to publish OA), and also provide researchers with an easy way to comply with funders' OA requirements.
The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) was set up under the direct charge of the Prime Minister through a Presidential Order on August 3, 1954. DAE encompasses all the areas related to power and non-power applications of atomic energy. The Department has the mandate of development of nuclear power technology which includes exploration, identification and processing of uranium resources and atomic minerals, fabrication of nuclear fuel, production of heavy water, construction and operation of nuclear power plants, nuclear fuel reprocessing and waste management. DAE is also responsible for research and development of fast reactor and fusion technologies, accelerator and laser technology, advanced electronics and instrumentation, materials science, biological sciences, etc. As part of non-power applications of atomic energy, the Department carries out cutting-edge research and development for application of isotopes and radiation technologies for health care, food & agriculture, industry and environment.
For over 180 years Springer Nature has been advancing discovery by providing the best possible service to the whole research community. We help researchers uncover new ideas, make sure all the research we publish is significant, robust and stands up to objective scrutiny, that it reaches all relevant audiences in the best possible format, and can be discovered, accessed, used, re-used and shared. We support librarians and institutions with innovations in technology and data; and provide quality publishing support to societies.
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