Springer Publishing: All you need to know about Springer
- May 21, 2024
- Posted by: Yury Subachev, PhD
- Categories: For young scientists, Paper publication
The Springer Publishing Company has a rich history; it helps students, teachers and researchers from all over the world to find and publish valuable scientific materials in science and technology, biology, medicine, computer science and many other disciplines on a daily basis. The publishing house has partners that help it to actively develop, as well as its own databases and libraries.
This article will tell you about the history and current status of the company, about the published journals and the popular SpringerLink platform. You will learn how to use the search platform and how to publish your book with Springer.
The large publishing company Springer began its existence in 1842 in Berlin when its founder Julius Springer opened a bookshop which soon grew into a full-fledged publishing house. It specialised in books on philosophy and politics, agriculture and forestry, engineering and pharmacy. After 40 years, Julius’s children expanded the company by publishing medical and biological literature, books on chemistry and physics. These areas are still considered to be Springer’s priority lines to this day.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the company published a book by Einstein, after which the famous scientist became editor of one of its journals. In the post-war years, as the company proceeded to redevelopment, Springer expanded its ties with the academic community and opened a branch in New York.
In 1999, the publishing company became part of the Bertelsmann Springer Group, and in 2003 the joint venture Springer Science+Business Media was formed which also incorporated the Dutch group Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Starting in 2015, the publisher became part of the Springer Nature Corporation.
2. Springer today.
Today, the Springer Publishing Company is a leading international concern engaged in the publishing of academic books and journals in natural sciences, including economics, medicine, engineering, construction and architecture. The concern comprises 70 publishing houses located worldwide; it has over 7 thousand employees and publishes more than 3 thousand journals and 8.5 thousand books annually. The company’s scope of business reaches 1 billion euros a year.
Springer is the largest publisher of e-books and the second largest publishing house issuing materials on science, technology and medicine, second only to Elsevier Corporation. The main objectives of the project are:
1. To make the results of the latest developments and techniques available to a wide audience.
2. To share relevant scientific information globally.
3. To present cutting-edge unique knowledge contributing to scientific progress in various fields of science.
4. To publish only valid and accurate results.
5. To facilitate the distribution of grants and research funding.
6. To help scientists professionally develop and gain recognition.
The company provides high-quality content for researchers from educational establishments, academic institutions and corporate departments in the form of information products and services. One-fifth of all Nobel Prize winners are known to be authors or editors of the Springer Publishing Company.
Materials are published in English as it is an international language that allows scientists from different countries to follow scientific progress. The information is provided for all users in open access, i.e. anyone can get acquainted with the literature they are interested in for free in electronic form or online on the official website of the Springer Publishing Company.
Springer has its own databases:
1. SpringerMaterials is a service for physical and chemical data in materials science. It contains information on the properties and characteristics of over 250 thousand materials and substances. All information is added after the evaluation of an article for a specialised journal by an expert. The website is springer.com.
2. Springer Protocols is a platform for storing protocols of tests and experiments held in biological, biochemical and cytological laboratories, as well as those in the sphere of pharmacology and microbiology, neurology, immunology, toxicology and radiology. The database contains over 20 thousand materials, the official website is springerprotocols.com.
3. Zentralblatt MATH is a repository of reference data on publications in mathematical journals. The service website is https://zbmath.org.
3. Journals of the publishing house.
The Springer Publishing Company encompasses over 3 thousand journals in English which are published annually. They publish about 150 thousand articles every year in various natural science areas:
- medicine and biology;
- science and technology;
- physics and chemistry;
- transport, business and other fields.
The database archive contains about 5 million publications; more than 100 thousand reviewers, 6 thousand editors and 50 thousand editorial board members are responsible for the quality of published materials. Every year, more than 130 million publications are downloaded by researchers from over 10 thousand scientific institutes and organisations.
Covers of some Springer journals (source)
4. Finding a suitable journal for the publication of an article.
When selecting a Springer journal, several nuances are to be considered:
1. Explore the information about the edition of interest, read articles published by it.
2. Ask your colleagues and associates about their experience of posting scholarly articles, talk to library staff.
3. Think about what is more important to you – the impact factor or the fact of publication in the Scopus database.
4. Search for information about the journal in social media, join thematic groups and forums.
5. If a journal has been found to have a bad history or questionable reviewing principles, it is best to avoid cooperation with it.
And, naturally, the choice should be based on the subject content of your article, that is, you should place your paper in journals that publish materials on your profile.
5. How can I publish a book with Springer?
As mentioned above, the Springer Publishing Company also publishes books, reference guides, manuals and other scientific works. The publishing house issues about 8.5 thousand books annually; in total, it has already published about 200 thousand books and research materials. The editorial board members take a responsible approach to this process, assisting and guiding the author at all stages of cooperation.
Publishing in Springer is free of charge; the editors do typesetting and formatting on their own. The researcher is provided with a detailed guide on the style and all nuances of presenting a scientific paper. If a book is co-authored, then all authors and editors receive additional copies; the scientists are also given a 33% discount on the purchase of other materials by the publishing company.
Books are made available for reading in electronic form; the printed version is published on demand. E-books are available on the most popular platforms such as EPUB, Google Books, Kindle.
The procedure for publishing a scientific paper:
1. A proposal is sent to Springer editors. For this, the book must be submitted in good English after proofreading by a native English speaker.
2. The book is peer-reviewed, after which the author is proposed to prepare a manuscript.
3. The materials are sent to the publisher where they undergo editing, layout and formatting.
4. Minor edits and corrections are made.
5. The book is ready for publication.
For the manuscript to be reviewed by the editors, it is necessary to prepare a short description of the book’s content; the author should also describe the current state of their scientific area, possible changes in the next 10 years in a particular field of knowledge and their proposals for its development. The writing style should be appropriate for the intended audience; additional materials should be included – recommended literary sources, exercises, etс.
6. SpringerLink platform.
SpringerLink is the largest web portal containing about 9 million scientific materials, including articles, reference guides, books and encyclopaedias. It is a valuable source of information on science, medicine and technology, biology and informatics, which is used by students, teachers, researchers and scientists. The service belongs to the Springer Publishing Company. The website stores electronic journals of the publishing house issued since 2005.
The benefits of the service for users are:
- the possibility of simultaneous search across journals, reference books, book collections;
- availability of materials not only in English but also in German, Spanish, French and other languages;
- search for papers in various fields of knowledge;
- a large number of freely available publications;
- the user-friendly and simple platform enabling one to search for specific queries;
- one can find a number of Russian scientific journals in English.
Source: Official website of the platform
The main page of the resource offers both simple and advanced search as well as the possibility to make thematic selection, and search for a document by content type. One can select not only the subject, discipline or type of document but also search by chronological coverage, the author, keywords, publication language and more.
When you click on the desired article of a particular Springer journal a page of that publication opens where you can see:
- basic information about the journal;
- title of the article and the author;
- abstract and keywords;
- references and other supplementary materials.
You can also download the full text of the document in PDF format or access the full article in HTML format by clicking on the journal cover. An example of a sought article page is shown on the photo below (source):
Conclusion
The history of the Springer Publishing Company counts almost 200 years, from a small bookshop in Berlin to the largest publishing house issuing scientific journals, books and manuals. Throughout its existence, the company has been actively developing, cooperating and teaming up with other corporations with the global goal – to make science accessible and open to the international scientific community, to help scientists promptly receive and share relevant information from various fields of knowledge.
Journals, books and other materials are stored on SpringerLink – the publisher’s online platform. Here, researchers can easily find publications of interest, using a convenient and intelligible search engine, and can view or download the full text of an article.
