Springer 

The cost of publishing articles under the program is covered by Springer’s national license fee from MEiN funds.

Which journals and articles are covered?

This year (2025), the program includes hybrid journals with a limit of 1378 articles to submit.

Which journals and articles are covered by the program?

The program enables UEK scientific access to publish articles in hybrid Springer journals – catalog 2025. Authors submitting their articles to fully open access journals covered by the program should be aware that their article may be accepted after the running out of the pool of articles for the year 2025, so the APC will have to be funded by the author (for hybrid journals, there is still the option of subscription publication). The program does not cover other SpringerOpen and BioMed Central open access journals.

The program covers articles in OriginalPaper, ReviewPaper, BriefCommunication, and ContinuingEducation. It does not cover EditorialNotes, News, or Letters. The program covers the Article Processing Charge (APC), but optional additional fees for colour illustrations, etc., are not included. Note:  Advances in Therapy journal charges a mandatory additional “Rapid Service Fee”, which is not covered by the program. This is the only journal in the programme that applies such an obligatory fee.

How to use the program?

After the article is accepted for publication, the corresponding author receives an email containing a link to complete the publication process. The link leads to a page where the author must click “Request login email” (see presentation, p. 3), after which the author will receive a second email with a link to the Open Access Systems Solution form. In the form, the corresponding author must indicate their affiliation (see presentation, p. 5) from the list of institutions covered by the open access publishing agreements with Springer. The selected affiliation must be one of the author’s affiliations indicated in the article. To confirm the author’s affiliation, you have to select the English name of your institution (Polish institutions are listed in the form), while the institution name in the article can be in any language version. If at the time of filling out the form the pool of articles covered by the program for the given year is not running out and the system recognises the selected institution as part of the program, the form will display the information “Open access at no cost to you” (see presentation, p. 6), which concerns the national agreement covering all Polish academic institutions registered for the Springer licence. After clicking “Yes, submit for approval”, the article information will be sent to the local administrator at the institution for affiliation verification. The author will be notified of the verification result by email (see presentation, p. 9). Acceptance of publication in the OA program means that the publication cost will be covered by the national licence fee paid to Springer by ICM and funded by the Polish Ministry of Higher Education.

The procedure described above is used by Springer for most hybrid journals, except for about 100 journals that in the publishing list in the “Standard Hybrid Specific Workflow” column are marked as “non-standard.” For these journals, the corresponding author will receive special instructions from the editorial office. Additionally, the Open Access Systems Solution form offers only the standard CC-BY open licence type, which is compliant with Plan S and recommended by WBN. However, if the authors wish to publish their article under a CC-BY-NC licence, they 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. In this case, the information about the article is also sent to the local administrator at the institution for affiliation verification.

Where can I get help with the program?

Please visit the website for more information: Poland Read and Publish agreement. 

If you need help, please contact Springer Nature: oa.verification@springernature.com or WBN (Wirtualna Biblioteka Nauki): wbn@icm.edu.pl.