Measuring our impact on the Sustainable Development Goals

Author: Nicola Jones

If countries around the globe are to collectively achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by their deadline of 2030, Nature believes the UN’s Pact for the Future ‘might be one of the few remaining opportunities that the world has to correct course’. The journal praises the central position given to science throughout the text, which signals the importance of reliable evidence when it comes to effective policymaking and consequently, meaningful change.  

It’s essential that the UN place science and research at the heart of plans to ‘turbocharge’ progress towards the goals. At Springer Nature, we think that’s exactly where they should be – to drive evidence-based policy and practice. That’s why we have a dedicated SDG publishing programme. By publishing research, academic and editorial communities facilitate knowledge exchange, encourage global dialogue and develop solutions to worldwide issues – all essential components for realising the SDGs. 

At Springer Nature, our aim is to provide a home for SDG-related knowledge, facilitating the discovery, sharing, use and reuse of research and evidence. We are intensifying our efforts to amplify the goals among our research audiences and to share our content with policymakers. It’s our mission to verify, amplify and make discoverable, trustworthy insights which support research that has the potential to drive progress. And as highlighted in our recent Annual Report, Be Part of Progress, we’re fulfilling our ambition.  

Since the goals were ratified in 2015, we’ve published more than one million SDG-related articles and book chapters. What’s more, 57% of SDG-related articles we published in 2024 are open access, meaning they can be read and shared easily by decision makers and others who need them to take action. 

We also consider the impact our published research has on the goals in a number of ways. Citations help identify where our research is being built upon for new discoveries. Downloads show us the research across our platforms that is being used the most to enhance understanding within and beyond the research community. Since 2015, our SDG-related content has been cited more than 17 million times, and we saw over 530 million downloads of our SDG-related articles in 2024. 

SDG-related research is in demand. Articles related to the SDGS get 50-60% more downloads than the average article and receive 40% higher Altmetric scores.  

We know researchers want their work to have an impact on wider society. It's therefore important to us that we’re able to measure how often our SDG research is viewed and used, to make clear the contribution of researchers and editors to world-changing discoveries. We’ll also be looking at how researchers can support policy impact in the coming months, starting with a session at our forthcoming fifth annual Science for a Sustainable Future series.

We’re pleased to see UN policymakers put science and research at the heart of their agenda for achieving the goals. We now have an opportunity to prove they were right to do so by continuing to publish for the SDGs across a variety of outlets, making sure our research has an impact in academic circles and beyond.