Open access at Nature Portfolio

Open-access publishing makes research available to anyone, anywhere, from the moment it is published. Readers do not need a subscription to read, use and build on the work, subject to the terms of the licence chosen for the article. Nature Portfolio offers open-access publishing options across a wide range of journals, helping authors meet funder requirements, increase accessibility and support open research.

Why choose open access at Nature Portfolio?

  • Immediate access for readers. Your article is available online when published, without readers needing a subscription to access it.
  • Greater opportunities for discovery and reuse. Open-access research can be shared, cited, discussed and built upon more easily by researchers, educators, policymakers and practitioners.
  • Editorial standards you can trust. Open-access articles are assessed against the same high editorial and peer-review standards as all submissions to our journals.
  • Support for open research. Many Nature Portfolio journals encourage practices that improve transparency, including data sharing, code sharing, protocol sharing (protocols.io) and transparent peer-review options where available.
  • Compliance with funder and institutional requirements. Open-access publishing can help authors meet open-access policies set by funders, institutions and research organisations. Read more about Funder Compliance.
  • Choice and flexibility. Authors can publish open access in fully open-access journals or, where available, choose an open-access option in eligible hybrid journals.
  • Author rights and reuse options. Open-access articles are published under Creative Commons licences that support sharing and reuse while making licence terms clear to readers. To learn more about OA licences visit our licensing and copyright guide.
  • Further reading. Find out more about the Benefits of open science.

Open-access options across Nature Portfolio

Nature Portfolio includes fully open-access journals that publish primary research papers, including Nature Communications, Nature Progress Journals, the Communications Journals, the npj Series and Scientific Reports. Nature and the Nature Research Journals also offer open-access publication options for primary research. Available options vary by journal, so authors should check the website of the journal they intend to send their paper to before submission.

Article processing charges

Authors who choose to publish open-access in Nature Portfolio journals will need to pay an article processing charge. Visit our open access support portal and our Journal Pricing FAQs for further information.

Funding and support. Open-access publication is often supported by research funders, institutions and, in some cases, national agreements. Visit Springer Nature’s open access funding & support services for information about research funders and institutions that provide funding for APCs. Springer Nature offers agreements that enable institutions to cover open access publishing costs. Learn more about our open access agreements to check your eligibility and discover which journals are included.

Waivers and discounts. Springer Nature offers APC waivers and discounts for articles published in our fully open-access journals whose corresponding authors are based in the world’s lowest income countries (see our APC waivers and discounts policy for further information). Requests for APC waivers and discounts from other authors will be considered on a case-by-case basis, and may be granted in cases of financial need (see our open access policies for journals for more information). All applications for discretionary APC waivers and discounts should be made at the point of manuscript submission; requests made during the review process or after acceptance are unable to be considered.

A dedicated fund for hybrid titles. A dedicated fund has been made available to enable authors from many lower income countries (currently those classified by the World Bank as low-income (LIC) or lower-middle-income economies (LMICs)) to publish their primary research open access in Nature and the Nature Research Journals. It is a specific provision to support a subset of authors and only applies to Nature Portfolio hybrid journals. The scheme will be reviewed at the end of 2026. Corresponding authors from qualifying countries whose primary research papers are accepted in principle (AIP) for publication in these titles will be informed as part of the publishing process that their paper will be published open access at no cost. Authors can opt out if they do not wish their papers to be published open access.