Opinion piece
AI and research: a question of trust
“As we navigate the AI landscape, we do so with caution, continuously evaluating its benefits and addressing any concerns raised by the research community. Security and ethics remain essential to us, especially in the era of AI.”
We published 183,800+ OA articles, and are on track for half of our research article output to be open access by the end of 2024.
9.9m+ downloads of Scientific American’s Science, Quickly podcast in 2023.
We launched our own Research Integrity Hub for all related resources, setting out our commitment to publishing trustworthy, reliable research.
We added 86 new series of education textbooks to our portfolio, altogether supporting 30m+ learners.
Summary
Open access
We are progressing our commitment to improve the speed, reproducibility and efficiency of the entire research process. Key to this is driving the transition to sustainable OA through transformative agreements, enabling enhanced data sharing but also implementing initiatives to ensure equal access to science.
What’s new: TIME recognises our open science commitment
In 2023, our commitment to open science as a tool for increasing public access to scientific research and data was recognised by TIME magazine.
Science communication
We publish and share some of the world’s most exciting and important science to varied audiences, communicating robust, reliable science, improving understanding of groundbreaking discoveries and working to prevent harmful misinformation.
What’s new: A new sustainability newsletter
We launched Nature Briefing: Anthropocene, which covers updates on vital research related to sustainability and climate change.
Research integrity
We know how important it is to be able to trust and rely on the research we publish. Research plays a pivotal role in our daily lives and advances our understanding of how humankind will combat climate change, reduce inequality and solve its most challenging problems. We’re dedicated to promoting research integrity at all stages of the research process.
What’s new: Slimmer AI acquisition
Springer Nature acquired the science division of Slimmer AI in 2023 and we are now using its AI tools to automate the identification of potential problems with papers, such as plagiarism.
Harnessing technology
From automatically matching papers with peer reviewers to tailored, AI-generated research summaries, technology is threaded throughout our business. It is also a key factor in driving forward open science, unlocking the power of knowledge faster and saving time for researchers. In 2023, we were particularly focused on developing the potential of AI, combining our tech knowledge and commitment to ethics as well as human oversight.
What’s new: First publisher to create a new academic book using Generative AI
Springer Nature has become the first publisher to create an academic book with generative AI. Developed during a ‘hack day’ that brought together authors, editors and experts from across Springer Nature, the German-language book Einsatzmöglichkeiten von GPT in Finance, Compliance und Audit (Applications of GPT in Finance, Compliance and Audit) has now been published. It took less than five months from inception to publication – about half the time normally taken.
