SpringerNature launched a content sharing initiative on their ReadCube platform to encourage sharing of subscription journal articles in a compliant way. They provided read-only access to full texts of 49 Nature Publishing Group journal articles on nature.com to be shared via peer-to-peer or from media/blog referrals. In the first year, they saw over 800k shared views, mostly from media referrals. They aim to continue evolving sharing features and policies based on feedback to better support collaborative research.

1. SpringerNature and its sharing
strategy on ReadCube
Martijn Roelandse
Head of Publishing Innovation

2. 2
The trial of free sharing of subscription journal articles
“our own science experiment”
Steven Inchcoombe, CPO
Lessons Learned – 1 Year On
Nicko Goncharoff
Director of Publisher Relations
Digital Science
Grace Baynes
Director, Business Operations and Policy
Springer Nature

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● Scientists have always shared their work … helping them do so is central to
Nature’s mission
● It’s what the WWW was invented for… and researchers in their millions are
now taking full advantage
SO WHAT?
● Tools are sub-optimal (Dropbox; I can haz PDF)
● It’s a black box: for publishers/libraries
● It creates conflict: take-down notices = reputational damage

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Why now?
An experiment was the only way to learn how to best
facilitate sharing and measure opportunities and risks
• Scope of sharing expanding rapidly with
internet tools and networks
• Authors want better tools for sharing their
work
• Being passive did not seem a viable
approach

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Has duty to readers
and authors to
facilitate sharing that
benefits research and
is commercially viable
Had the components
(content, technology,
policy) to take this
first step, learn, and
share results
Opportunity for
ReadCube to better
serve researcher,
institutional, and
publisher customers
Experiment Partners – Dec 2014

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Nature wanted to:
● Encourage sharing: on its own platform (nature.com); then
on 3rd party platforms
● Find solutions to making sharing COUNTER-compliant
● Understand usage & need
● Provide data and experience to inform constructive
discussion & solutions across the industry
Our approach….

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49 NPG Journal
Full Text Articles
ReadCube Connect
‘Enhanced PDF’ technology
Shareable read-only, full-
text articles on nature.com
NPG Content/Policy + Digital Science Technology

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Media Referral
Readers access full-
text journal articles
on nature.com
cited on 100 trusted
news and blog sites
Peer-to-Peer
Subscribers send
or post shareable
links to NPG
journal article on
nature.com
Sharing Methods & parameters
• Read-only access to full text articles on nature.com
• Use results and feedback to evolve sharing features, policy and commercial models
• Share results with research and publisher communities
• Supported by a “beta” policy and T&C’s
• 12-month pilot (but expect it to be long-term)

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Sharing Statistics – Dec 2 2014 - Nov 30 2015
• About 815K ‘shared views’ during period
• Most (~630K) views are referrals from whitelist media sites
• Of ~184K Peer-to-Peer shares:
• 67% (123K) subscribers to non-subscribers
• 33% (61K) subscriber- subscriber or OA content

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Sharing Activity - Top Five

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• Steady usage, but modest numbers
• Do we need to better promote among researchers?
• Bulk of views are media referrals
• Activity influenced by news events
• Coverage of major Nature papers causes spikes in views
• Media referral fits into reader workflow; peer-to-peer sharing possibly less so
• P2P sharing is mostly between subscribers and non-subscribers, with the remainder
often between two people who already have access
• No downturn in single-article sales
• Little to no instances of abuse observed
Conclusions

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Some good...
• Lots of media & social media interest
• Generally positive
Some bad...
• Open Access: misunderstood as a move away from gold/green OA by some
• DRM: consternation & concerns
What we learnt from the community response

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What’s Next?

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Supporting collaborative research and dissemination of scientific information with a
service that can share the original paper of academic journals
In addition to 1,300 journals owned by Springer-Nature, it covers more than 1,000 co-
owned journals and partner-owned journals

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① Users who have access rights to
the articles share with their
colleagues and co-workers
② Access to articles from about 100
news organizations in the world and
science blog sites
Two ways to access the paper

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① Users with access rights share with colleagues and co-
workers
Until now… Share URL via Twitter
or e-mail
If you don’t have access
rights

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① Users with access rights share with colleagues and
collaborators
With the content sharing function ...
Just by attaching share URLs
to email or social media,
anyone can access

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① Users with access rights share with colleagues and
collaborators
If you do not have access to the paper, you can only browse the article
(Printing, PDF saving is not possible)

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② Access to articles from about 200 news organizations in
the world and science blog sites
Providing access to full text articles to readers of about 100 news
organizations and science blog sites around the world aiming to convey
deeper information on important research widely and in general

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Initial responses
https://steelgraham.wordpress.com/2016/10/28/1778/
http://www.harzing.com/blog/2016/12/articles-with-free-publisher-access

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Thank you!

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"Stand on the giant's shoulder" Newton
Background Information
Piling up knowledge is indispensable for the development of research. However, the
current sharing method is not only complicated, but there are also cases outside the
contract provision.
Content sharing initiative aims to provide essential solutions to the needs of
scientists who want to efficiently and legally share scientific research.

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Dos and Don’ts
Content sharing policy
Personal use - Limited to personal use purposes with colleagues and collaborators
(NG as an institution)
In the case of
Reasonable use - Only when you are interested in sharing papers of interest with
colleagues or colleagues at moderate frequency (it is NG to share large amounts of
papers systematically or regularly)
In the case of
Non-commercial use - limited to research and educational purposes (it is not good to
use it as a fee-based service or as an alternative to an existing paid service)