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Springer Nature

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Springer Nature
Company typePrivately held Kommanditgesellschaft auf Aktien with an Aktiengesellschaft as general partner
IndustryPublishing
Founded2015; 9 years ago (2015)
HeadquartersLondon (global)
Berlin (corporate)
New York City (sales)
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Frank Vrancken Peeters (CEO)
RevenueUS$ 2.1 billion (2022)
Owners
Number of employees
10,000 (2019)
Websitewww.springernature.com
Footnotes / references
[1]

Springer Nature or the Springer Nature Group[1][2] is a German–British academic publishing company created by the May 2015 merger of Springer Science+Business Media and Holtzbrinck Publishing Group's Nature Publishing Group, Palgrave Macmillan, and Macmillan Education.[3]

History

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The company originates from several journals and publishing houses, notably Springer-Verlag, which was founded in 1842 by Julius Springer in Berlin[4] (the grandfather of Bernhard Springer who founded Springer Publishing in 1950 in New York),[5] Nature Publishing Group which has published Nature since 1869,[6] and Macmillan Education, which goes back to Macmillan Publishers founded in 1843.[7]

Springer Nature was formed in 2015 by the merger of Nature Publishing Group, Palgrave Macmillan, and Macmillan Education (held by Holtzbrinck Publishing Group) with Springer Science+Business Media (held by BC Partners). Plans for the merger were first announced on 15 January 2015.[8] The transaction was concluded in May 2015 with Holtzbrinck having the majority 53% share.[9]

IPO attempts in May 2018 and Autumn 2020[10] were unfruitful due to unfavorable market conditions.[11][12]

In 2021, Springer Nature acquired Atlantis Press, an open access publisher founded in Paris in 2006, focusing on scientific, technical, and medical (STM) content, and publication of conference proceedings.[13][14]

Current company

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After the merger, former Springer Science+Business Media CEO Derk Haank became CEO of Springer Nature.[15] When he retired by the end of 2017, he was succeeded by Daniel Ropers,[16] the co-founder and long-time CEO of bol.com.[17] In September 2019, Ropers was replaced by Frank Vrancken Peeters.[18][19]

The company is releasing several Policies & Reports,[20] including a Modern Slavery Act statement, a Tax strategy, and a gender pay gap report for Springer Nature's UK operations.[21][22]

Springer Nature is a signatory of the SDG Publishers Compact,[23][24] and has taken steps to support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the publishing industry.[25][26][27] These include becoming carbon neutral as of 2020,[26] organizing its publications into 17 SDG-related content hubs,[28][29] and launching thematic journals such as Nature Climate Change, Nature Energy, Nature Sustainability,[30] Nature Food, Nature Human Behaviour, Nature Water and Nature Cities (appearing 2024).[31] In 2014, the Nature Portfolio series of themed online journals was launched.[32]

Springer's journal Environment, Development, and Sustainability was one of six out of 100 journals to receive the highest possible "Five Wheel" impact rating[33] from the SDG Impact Intensity™ journal rating system, based on an analysis of data from 2016–2020 that assessed relevance to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).[34][35]

Brands

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The following major brands belong to the group (see also Subsidiaries):[36]

Controversies

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In 2017, the company agreed to block access to hundreds of articles on its Chinese site, cutting off access to articles related to Tibet, Taiwan, and China's political elite.[38][39]

The company retracted a paper in 2019, in its journal BMC Emergency Medicine due to a dubious peer-review process (a herpetologist could have denied the publication of the paper).[40]

In August 2020, Springer Nature was reported to have rejected the publication of an article at the behest of its co-publisher, Wenzhou Medical University, from a Taiwanese doctor because the word "China" was not placed after "Taiwan".[41][42]

In July 2020, Springer Nature retracted a paper in the journal Society due to a dubious review process and criticism regarding racism.[43]

In November 2021, Springer Nature retracted 44 nonsense papers from the Arabian Journal of Geosciences after a lapse in the peer review process.[44][45]

In August 2023, after an investigation, Springer Nature retracted a paper that claimed there is no evidence of a global climate crisis.[46][48]

Lawsuits

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In September 2024, Lucina Uddin, a neuroscience professor at UCLA, sued Springer Nature along with five other academic journal publishers in a proposed class-action lawsuit, alleging that the publishers violated antitrust law by agreeing not to compete against each other for manuscripts and by denying scholars payment for peer review services.[49][50]

Subsidiaries

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Über uns: Presse" (in German). Springer Nature Group. Retrieved 2021-03-09.
  2. ^ "Türen für Entdeckungen Öffnen" (in German). Springer Nature Group. Retrieved 2021-03-08.
  3. ^ "Springer Nature created following merger completion". Springer. 6 May 2015.
  4. ^ "Springer celebrates 175 years since its founding". KnowledgeSpeak.com. 11 May 2017. Archived from the original on 28 November 2018. Retrieved April 6, 2018.
  5. ^ "Do you mean Springer, Springer or Springer?". Springer.com. 2014. Archived from the original on 27 December 2016.
  6. ^ "Nature". Phys.org. Retrieved April 6, 2018.
  7. ^ "About Us | Springer Nature | Corporate Affairs Homepage | Springer Nature". group.springernature.com. Retrieved 2021-03-09.
  8. ^ "Nature publisher to merge with Springer". Times Higher Education. 15 January 2015. Retrieved April 6, 2018.
  9. ^ Caroline Carpenter (May 6, 2015). "Completed merger forms 'Springer Nature'". The Bookseller. Retrieved July 8, 2015.
  10. ^ "Springer Nature Said to Kick Off 1 Billion-Euro IPO This Month". Bloomberg.com. 2020-09-04. Retrieved 2021-03-08.
  11. ^ Schuetze, Arno (2018-05-08). "Weak demand forces Springer Nature to cancel $3.2 billion float at last minute". Reuters. Retrieved 2021-03-08.
  12. ^ Benjamin Robertson, Ruth David, Jan-Henrik Foerster (3 October 2020). "Europe IPO Revival Peters Out as Year's Top German Deal Delayed". Bloomberg.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ "About Atlantis Press". Atlantis Press. Retrieved February 5, 2023.
  14. ^ Anderson, Porter (March 11, 2021). "Springer Nature Acquires Paris' Open Access Atlantis Pres". Publishing Perspectives.
  15. ^ "Derk J Haank, Springer Science+Business: Profile and Biography". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2021-03-08.
  16. ^ "Derk Haank, Chief Executive Officer to retire and to be succeeded by Daniel Ropers". www.springer.com. Retrieved 2021-03-08.
  17. ^ "Bol.com's Ropers to take Haank's role at Springer Nature". The Bookseller. 6 May 2015.
  18. ^ "Executive Team | Corporate Affairs Homepage | Springer Nature". group.springernature.com. Retrieved 2021-03-08.
  19. ^ "Springer Nature Announces CEO Succession: Frank Vrancken Peeters appointed Chief Executive Officer. Daniel Ropers to step down. | Corporate Affairs Homepage | Springer Nature". group.springernature.com.
  20. ^ "Policies, Reports and Acts | Springer Nature | Corporate Affairs Homepage | Springer Nature". group.springernature.com. Retrieved 2021-03-08.
  21. ^ "Springer Nature reports 15.12% pay gap". www.thebookseller.com. The Bookseller. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  22. ^ "Springer Nature Gender Pay Gap Report – April 2018 - EN | Corporate Affairs Homepage | Springer Nature". group.springernature.com. Retrieved 2021-03-08.
  23. ^ "SDG Publishers Compact Members". United Nations Sustainable Development. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
  24. ^ "SDG Publishers Compact". United Nations Sustainable Development. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  25. ^ "Springer Nature and SDSN Release Joint White Paper on How to Narrow the Policy, Research, and Community Divide". UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). 3 May 2021.
  26. ^ a b Anderson, Porter (5 April 2023). "Springer Nature Issues a New Sustainability Report". Publishing Perspectives.
  27. ^ "Sustainable Business Summary 2021". Springer Nature. 2022. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  28. ^ "Transcript: SDG Content Hub Magic Number Is 17 | CCC's Velocity of Content Podcast". Velocity of Content | A series of recordings from the Copyright Clearance Center. February 21, 2022.
  29. ^ "SDG 14 Journal Collections and Special Issues incl. Call for Papers | For Researchers | Springer Nature". Springer Nature.
  30. ^ Butcher, James (1 March 2023). "Scholarly publishers and the SDGs". GEOSCIENTIST.
  31. ^ "Nature Portfolio to expand with three new journals in 2024 | Springer Nature Group | Springer Nature". Springer Nature. 16 March 2023.
  32. ^ "npj Series | Nature Portfolio".
  33. ^ "SDG-Impact Journal Rating" (PDF). Cabells.
  34. ^ Rodenburg, Kathleen; Rowan, Michael; Nixon, Andrew; Christensen Hughes, Julia (January 2022). "The Misalignment of the FT50 with the Achievement of the UN's SDGs: A Call for Responsible Research Assessment by Business Schools". Sustainability. 14 (15): 9598. doi:10.3390/su14159598. ISSN 2071-1050.
  35. ^ Linacre, Simon (17 March 2021). "Cabells launches new SDG Impact Intensity™ journal rating system in partnership with Saint Joseph's University's Haub School of Business". the source.
  36. ^ "Springer Nature Group | Corporate Affairs Homepage | Springer Nature". group.springernature.com. Retrieved 2021-03-08.
  37. ^ "Heinrich Vogel Shop". www.heinrich-vogel-shop.de. Retrieved 2021-03-08.
  38. ^ Hernández, Javier C. (2017-11-01). "Leading Western Publisher Bows to Chinese Censorship (Published 2017)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-03-08.
  39. ^ Hilgers, Lauren (January 10, 2018). "The Mystery of the Exiled Billionaire Whistle-Blower". The New York Times.
  40. ^ retractionwatch (3 April 2020). "A snake bites once, but its picture is used twice".
  41. ^ Tang, Jane (1 September 2020). "Springer Nature Journal Rejects Article by Taiwan Doctor Over Country Name". Radio Free Asia. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  42. ^ Charlie Parker (October 10, 2020). "Taiwan academics told to identify as Chinese in journal". The Times.
  43. ^ retractionwatch (31 July 2020). "Springer Nature retracts paper that hundreds called 'overtly racist'".
  44. ^ Isaac Schultz (6 November 2021). "Science Publisher Retracts 44 Papers for Being Utter Nonsense". Gizmodo.
  45. ^ Marcus, Adam (November 4, 2021). "Springer Nature geosciences journal retracts 44 articles filled with gibberish". Retraction Watch. Retrieved September 14, 2022.
  46. ^ a b Readfearn, Graham (25 August 2023). "Scientific journal retracts article that claimed no evidence of climate crisis". The Guardian. Retrieved 2023-08-27.
  47. ^ Readfearn, Graham (2022-06-13). "Sky News Australia is a global hub for climate misinformation, report says". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-08-27.
  48. ^ Before the paper was retracted, Sky News Australia – a news station priorly outed as a centre for climate change misinformation[47] – published two segments on the paper, which were then subsequently viewed over half a million times on YouTube.[46]
  49. ^ Scarcella, Mike (2024-09-13). "Academic publishers face class action over 'peer review' pay, other restrictions". Reuters. Archived from the original on 2024-09-14. Retrieved 2024-09-15.
  50. ^ Abdur-Rahman, Sulaiman (2024-09-13). "'Illegal Conspiracy'?: EDNY Antitrust Class Action Challenges Publishers' Unpaid Peer Review Rule". New York Law Journal. Archived from the original on 2024-09-13. Retrieved 2024-09-15.
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