On this page you can find out about Springer Nature’s open access (OA) policies for books and chapters published via the immediate ‘gold’ OA and non-open access routes.
Click here for our OA policies for journal articles.
For information about meeting the OA policies of funders and institutions when publishing with Springer Nature, visit our OA funding support service.
OA licensing and copyright
Open access licensing
All open access books and chapters published by SpringerOpen and Palgrave Macmillan are published under Creative Commons licences. These provide an industry-standard framework to support easy re-use of open access material.
Springer Nature OA books and chapters are published under a CC BY licence (Creative Commons Attribution v4.0 International Licence) by default. The CC BY licence is the most open licence available and considered the industry 'gold standard' for open access; it is also preferred by many funders. This licence allows readers to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, and to alter, transform, or build upon the material, including for commercial use, providing the original author is credited.
Other Creative Commons licences are available on request: please contact your editor to discuss this. However, before requesting an alternative licence you are advised to check your funder's requirements, to ensure compliance.
Intergovernmental organisation (IGO) versions of Creative Commons licences for books and chapters are available on request where required by the author’s employer.
Retrospective licence changes
Authors of open access books and chapters at Springer or Palgrave Macmillan may not change the Creative Commons licence of their work after publication.
Copyright of OA books and chapters
Authors retain copyright of all open access books or chapters published by Springer Nature under a Creative Commons licence.
Use of third-party material in open access books and chapters
Authors retain copyright of all open access books or chapters published by Springer Nature under a Creative Commons licence.
Authors considering publishing their books or chapters via the immediate open access route should carefully consider whether they need to include any third-party material in their manuscript. Third-party material is only acceptable in an open access book or chapter if you:
- have discussed it with, and have the agreement of, your editorial contact to include it;
- are able to secure the necessary terms to enable such content to be made available in an open access form (ideally the same Creative Commons licence under which the content will be made available, but at a minimum approval from the rightsholder to include the content in an open access book).
- provide clear captions for all third-party material clearly acknowledging the source and licence terms.
Please see our dedicated Third-party permissions page for additional guidance on third-party rights.