Delivering the DEAL: Implementation of the Projekt DEAL – Springer Nature transformative open access agreement for the benefit of the entire German and global research community

• Applicant: Dr. Frank Sander
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 447873427

With the signing of the Springer Nature (SN) - DEAL agreement at the beginning of this year, the largest transformative agreement worldwide has been achieved. The SN-DEAL agreement could be the decisive step in the large scale transition of the infrastructure, workflows, and business models associated with scholarly communication from a subscription logic to an Open Access logic. With its high visibility and impact, the SN-DEAL agreement constitutes an indicator of the global Open Access transition and of Germany's leading role in it. The contract was signed on 8.1.2020 and is valid retroactively from 01.01.2020. During the first 6 months of the contract a payment obligation was waived, but this obligation must be fulfilled on 30.06.2020, which means that by this date the solvency for the entire contract volume – including those parts which will only be adopted by German scientific institutions at a later point in the agreement – must be formally established. A failure of the agreement due to temporal dynamics of signature run-up and payment timings would be a bitter setback for the German science system and the international scientific community in its efforts to transition to Open Access – and thus such a setback should be avoided. The aim of this proposal is to financially secure the implementation of the SN-DEAL agreement and its maintenance 2020 through 2022.

• DFG Programme: Science Communication, Research Data, eResearch (Scientific Library Services and Information Systems)
• Co-Investigators: Dr. Kristine Gampe, since 4/2023; Dr. Ralf Schimmer, until 3/2023