Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the market dominance of (a) Springer Nature and (b) other major academic publishers on access to publicly funded research.

The UK mandates open access to publicly funded research via funders such as UK Research and Innovation. Negotiations between Higher Education and academic publishers, including Springer Nature, are supported by Jisc. They seek value for money and off-set read subscriptions and publishing charges, while enabling open access in accordance with UK funder policies.

Jisc is negotiating new agreements with publishers in 2025. These focus on pace of change to open access models, financial sustainability, and equity to benefit wider audiences. Also, funders and universities, encourage a diversity of outputs from research, beyond publication, including preprints.