Academics will soon be able to make articles freely available in Nature-branded journals for €9,500—with a discounted option available under a pilot program that provides review, but no guarantee of acceptance.

While some academics have called for compensation for assessing other scientists’ work, publishers haven’t warmed to the idea.

The agreement will enable authors at eligible German institutes to publish an estimated 400 open-access papers each year in Springer Nature journals from the Nature line of titles.

We present an economic plan for a collective sharing of scientific knowledge on the pandemic.

Nearly 100 academic journals, societies, institutes, and companies sign a commitment to make research and data on COVID-19 freely available, at least for the duration of the outbreak.

Publishers’ efforts to reduce “leakage,” funder-driven open-access schemes, the growth of academic publishing in China, and more.

Licensing negotiations between libraries and publishers continued, a radical open-access plan made changes, and the flaws of some publishing tools and techniques came to light.

The scholarly publisher has announced several new licensing agreements in both Europe and the US—but some major academic groups are still without contracts and access to journals.

The publishing giant will likely survive the latest boycott by scientists. An overhaul is needed to make science publishing fair and open.