We are pleased to announce 2 new COUNTER5 (C5) updates released in September 2020. The first update is that 4 new filters are now available to use for C5 customer filtered Title Master Reports.

In September a new URL was activated for the Springer Nature Metadata Downloader. We have a redirect URL in place directing any traffic from the previous URL to the new one, therefore access to the downloader should remain uninterrupted.

In our ‘Behind the scenes’ series we take a look at internal Springer Nature teams, explore their work and how they support the librarian community. For this article, we talked to the Springer Nature Institutional Data Development team.

In the past decade, eBook collections have become more common place, publishing technologies have improved.

In early September all customers will transition to only using their BPID as the main customer identifier. Currently, COUNTER 4 nature.com and Scientific American usage is reporting on siteIDs, but as of September the reporting will be based on the customer’s BPID.

Springer Nature frequently adds books to eBook packages. The metadata downloader for Books now provides three new options.

Building the world to be inclusive by design, whether they be physical spaces or digital, benefits everyone. Access to knowledge should not be limited by who you are, where you are, or the device you are using. As a research publisher, we have a duty to never take the fundamental right to access news and knowledge for granted. In this guest post, James Alegria, Digital Brand Designer at SN, explains how the features of the new Springer journal pages were built with this in mind.

April 2020 | We have introduced a custom report metric that makes it possible to compare the BR2: Book chapter downloads by month COUNTER 4 (C4) data with the Title Master Report COUNTER 5 data. The TR_B1: Book Requests C5 report data represents the overall requests of a book on the chapter level, and since we deliver books as a single pdf but only reported usage in the C4 Chapter Report (BR2), there was no comparable metric in C5 until now.  

March 2020 | The whole world is in the grip of an unprecedented crisis impacting the way we go about our daily lives. For the time being, universities and schools are switching to online learning, and professionals around the world are working from home whilst juggling child care and other responsibilities. As a global company, we at Springer Nature are incredibly used to remote working; however, this changes a lot for us as well.

March 2020 | Springer Nature is monitoring the coronavirus situation closely. During this time, we are doing everything necessary to make sure our research platforms remain fully available and we are ready to support the increasing numbers of researchers, students and faculty working from remote locations. We want to make sure access to our content is not interrupted in any way. Springer Nature is here to support you with remote access for your patrons.

February 2020 | The way that researchers have traditionally authenticated to publisher websites to access institutional subscriptions is via IP address. The device (desktop, laptop, tablet, mobile phone…) that the researcher uses is connected to their institutional network, the publisher’s websites sees the researcher coming from the institution's network based on their IP, and grants them access. 

January 2020 | We are happy to announce that earlier this week we made available our first COUNTER release 5 data. This first iteration of COUNTER 5 reports are currently being audited in order to ensure that we comply with the COUNTER Code of Practice Release 5. You can access the COUNTER 5 reports are via the Springer Nature Librarian Portal.

August 2019 |  Springer Nature works continuously to respond to the needs of librarians and their users. Find the latest platform updates across Springer Nature Link, nature.com and BMC here.

July 2019 | Social Media Tips for Librarians: Social media is used for promotion by businesses large and small and libraries are no different. Using a range of social media channels to promote their holdings and services to users in a fun and cost effective way. Read our first edition of a regular feature on social media especially for librarians.

March 2019 | ​​​​​​​In recent months we have started to merge  Springer and Nature accounts together to better serve our customers.  This work is still ongoing and not completely finished due to its complexity. This is causing a delay in releasing COUNTER 5 reports on the Springer Nature Librarian Portal and via SUSHI. Therefore, we will not be able to make these available in March as previously communicated.

February 2019 | ​​​​​​​In January 2019, COUNTER released its fifth Code of Practice (COUNTER 5) which “focuses on improving the clarity, consistency, and comparability of usage reporting." As a result, we have spent the last few months working towards becoming COUNTER 5 compliant and would like to share an update on our progress.

February 2019 |  Springer Nature is delighted to offer its customers KBART Automation for their knowledge bases and discovery services. This means that for the first time, libraries and research institutions can make their content discoverable and accessible with minimal manual work, and in a fraction of the time it has previously taken.

At Springer Nature, we stay in contact with our customers in a number of ways: through regular contact with our sales and account development team; by attending conferences; our own Library Advisory Boards and Summits; and our recently launched Librarian Survey. Open Access plays a key role in many of these conversations and we are here to listen and collaborate with you to find solutions that work.

January 2020 | Following a successful Nature Research journal publishing session in her library, Sarah Roughley, Scholarly Communications Librarian at the University of Liverpool, talks to us about creating engaging events that address the needs of researchers, and her perception of the Publisher’s role in helping librarians deliver insights and tutorials to their users.

October 2018 |  We would like to inform you that International Abstracts in Operations Research has returned to International Federation of Operational Research Societies (IFORS), and due to stability issues palgrave-journals.com/iaor will be disabled and no longer accessible as of November 1, 2018.

September 2018 | We’re happy to share some upcoming developments for the newly launched Springer Nature Librarian Portal, which will soon have COUNTER reports available for download for Springer Nature Link and nature.com content.  Additionally, MPS Insights and Site License Administration Account platforms will soon be disabled and shut down.

August 2018 | ​​​​​​​To improve the quality of our records and to be more RDA compliant we will release enriched MARC records on August 31. This concerns MARC21 and MARCxml books and journal records available through the MARC downloader tool and article MARC which can be received through FTP. We will re-create our MARC records so that all available records for content from Springer Nature will contain the enrichments.

The first institution and the first funding agency have begun to offer Research Data Support to their researchers. Researchers at University of Nevada, Las Vegas can now access Research Data Support, a service from Springer Nature that makes datasets easier to find, share and cite. Researchers funded by the Wellcome Trust can also use the service as part of a pilot project. 

July 2018 | Springer Nature is committed to making our website and platforms as accessible as possible to people with special needs, including those with visual, hearing, cognitive and motor impairments. We always make sure that our website follows accessibility best practices by following the principles of universal design, ensuring we provide equal access to all of our users. 

July 2018 | In tandem with the new look and feel of nature.com, the on-going migration also aims to improve overall functionality for our users.

June 2018 | ​​​​​​​ We are happy to announce that the new Springer Nature Librarian Portal has launched! The Springer Nature Librarian Portal is now live and provides you with a centralized location to manage access to and understand usage of your Springer Nature content and can be accessed at librarian.springernature.com.

June 2018 | As a global publisher, Springer Nature is home to a family of brands, businesses and imprints that include some of the most famous names in academic, education and professional publishing.

The North American Institutional Marketing and Sales teams partnered with American University Library to host a Regional Summit at American University in Washington, DC. The daylong event was attended by academic and government librarians interested in access authentication and exploring Resource Access in the 21st Century (RA21).

The Springer Library Advisory program has now been active for 14 years and continues to grow in importance, as we develop our strategies and products.

June 2018 | ​​​​​​​In line with Springer Nature’s continuing efforts to improve our user's experience, we are happy to announce the development of a combined Springer Nature administration tool. The Springer Nature Librarian Portal will launch in late June, and provide administrators with a central location to manage their Springer Nature licensed content.

May 2018 | We are continuing to take steps to move towards a more secure web browsing experience by removing support for any version of Transport Layer Protocol lower than 1.2.  The support will end on May 31^st, 2018 and some users may be negatively impacted.

May 2018 | Our UX team have been working hard to extend the new look and feel that launched across eBooks, to Reference Works, Encyclopedias and Dictionaries.

April 2018 | ​​​​​​​From June 1st, The Statesman's Yearbook will be permanently and exclusively hosted on SpringerLink moving across from the current platform. Find out about the benefits of the move along with recommended actions for existing customers in the online FAQs.

April 2018 | ​​​​​​​We have been working with Google to improve how Google Scholar recognises a user who has access to many of our products. Users should see links directly to their subscribed SpringerLink content when searching.

April 2018 | Many more titles have been moved over to the updated website design and infrastructure on nature.com. The new look and feel includes numerous advantages including improved functionalities on article pages, enhanced navigation and integrated article metrics. Underneath that, the infrastructure itself allows us to do even more, including publish articles faster, improve content discovery and assist us in moving you to one licensing system.

March 2018 | ​Two new COUNTER reports are now available to download in your Library Admin area of SpringerLink, showing usage and denials of SpringerProtocols content. The newly-released report formats provide an easier option for account administrators who wish to see usage of this content separately.

Jan 2018 | ​​​​​​Our UX team is constantly evaluating how they can improve the user experience on our platforms. They have recently finished work on redesigning the eBook pages after extensive testing and analysing what users are looking for most on these pages. All our books have now moved to the new design.

Jan 2018 | ​​​​​​​This major reference work will be moving exclusively onto the SpringerLink platform on 15th November, 2017. If you are an existing licensee of The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics content and have questions regarding the change, download the FAQ for detailed information, including usage reports.

Jan 2018 | ​​​​​​​Stay updated on platform changes, usage stats, service notifications and general Springer Nature news for Information Managers please follow us on Twitter @SN_Dashboard

November 2017 | ​​​​​​​We are building a combined infrastructure and an updated website design for nature.com, to meet the needs of our users, and to allow us to make continuous improvements. Many of our journals have already been moved over and you can enjoy the new look and feel on many of our newest titles, like Nature Ecology & Evolution.

May 2017 | ​​​​​​​Since the launch of the Springer Nature Librarian Portal, our development team has continuously been working towards integrating all administration functionalities into one interface. We successfully migrated the nature.com Site License Administration Account features, and are now ready to complete the process with the Springer Admin Portal.