Nature Portfolio Launches Open Access Journals
The publisher Nature Portfolio has launched "Nature Progress," a new series of fully open access journals. The initiative is designed to support open science goals for both academic researchers and the funders who support their work. This move adds another major publisher to the growing ecosystem of open access publication venues.
- The "Nature Progress" series will initially launch with two journals, *Nature Progress Oncology* and *Nature Progress Brain Health*, which are set to open for submissions on March 19, 2026. - This initiative adds to Springer Nature's existing portfolio of approximately 700 fully open access journals and builds on the more than 240,000 open access articles it publishes annually. - The article processing charges (APCs) for the new series will range from €4,390 to €5,090, and as fully open access journals, they will be covered by Springer Nature's APC waiver policy for authors in low-income countries. - The editorial model will combine in-house editors with external editorial board members from the research community to maintain high editorial standards while reflecting global research diversity. - This launch is presented as a direct response to author demand, with a survey indicating that 84% of authors would welcome more opportunities to publish in Nature-branded journals. - The "fully open access" model, also known as "gold open access," means all articles are immediately and freely available to everyone upon publication, unlike hybrid journals which mix open access and subscription content. - Springer Nature has been active in the open access transition for over 20 years and supports researchers through various agreements with institutions that can cover the costs of open access publishing. - The broader trend in academic publishing shows a significant shift towards open access, with the share of fully open access articles increasing by over 244% in the last decade, accounting for nearly 36% of all published articles in 2020.
