No agreement yet with Sage and Springer Nature: ETH Library offers temporary solutions for contract-free status
The national negotiations conducted by swissuniversities for the renewal of the existing read-and-publish agreements with the scientific publishers Sage and Springer Nature have not yet led to an agreement.
The ETH Library, together with the other universities affected, is preparing for a possible contract-free status from January 2026.
Read access to Sage and Springer Nature content
Sage
Access to articles published from 2026 onwards that are not published as open access articles will no longer be available. Access to articles published up to the end of 2025 will continue to be available as usual. If you require an article from a external page external pageSage journal, please order it on our website. The costs for ETH members will be covered by the ETH Library. Please note that you must register with swisscovery in advance.
To make it easier to find open access articles in Sage journals and those of other publishers, you can alternatively use the free browser extensions from external page external pagewww.unpaywall.org, LibKey Nomad and Google Scholar, or contact the author directly.
Springer Nature
Read access to Springer Nature journals is expected to remain available during the negotiations. In the event of a prolonged period without a contract, access to content could be restricted from 2026 onwards. The ETH Library will provide ongoing updates on the progress of the negotiations via its news channels.
Open access publishing with Sage and Springer Nature
The costs for articles in pure gold open access journals from external page external pageSage and external page external pageSpringer Nature will continue to be covered by the ETH Library despite the lack of a contract. Details on the workflow will be available on the ETH Library's Open Access Wiki from January 2026.
In contrast, publishing in hybrid journals with external page external pageSage and external page external pageSpringer Nature will only be possible in closed access form from January 2026. The ETH Library will not finance the open access fees for such journals during the contract-free period. However, it will endeavour to convert all articles accepted in 2026 into open access publications retroactively once a contract has been concluded.
The ETH Library therefore recommends that ETH members do not finance hybrid articles from their own funds during the contract-free period. Alternatively, authors are recommended to re-publish their accepted manuscript version free of charge in the Research Collection.
Completion of the publication process for articles accepted in 2025
The ETH Library asks all ETH authors whose articles are still accepted for publication in Sage or Springer Nature journals until the end of 2025 to complete their publication process by selecting the desired open access version in the corresponding publisher systems by 12 noon on 31 December 2025 at the latest. This is the only way the ETH Library can cover the publication fees under the expiring contracts.
The ETH Library is available to provide support and answer your questions at any time.
Telephone: +41 44 632 21 35
Email address:
Further information on the negotiations with Springer Nature can also be found on the website of external page swissuniversities.
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