According to the agreement between Springer Nature and the Universities of The Netherlands (UNL), Dutch corresponding authors are allowed to publish up to 2,067 open access articles per year without additional article processing charges (APC).

Consequences
The national annual quota for 2024 is reached today. This means that the deal is suspended and UG/UMCG articles are no longer eligible for the usual 100% discount on the open access fee.

Dutch corresponding authors will be able to use the new allocation of OA fee waivers as of 1 January 2025.

Please note: If you choose to publish open access, you will have to arrange the APC payment yourself.

Alternative routes
During the suspension of the deal, authors can choose to publish closed access. Alternative routes to make your article open access may be the Taverne Amendment route or the Rights Retention Strategy. Please contact us for additional information.

Funder restrictions: Should your research funder (e.g. NWO or Horizon Europe) require you to share your publications immediately (no embargo) and under an open license, please get in touch with us for advice.

If you wish to discuss the available options or if you have any questions email us at:
openaccess@umcg.nl (UMCG authors)