Users of nature.com are to be the first to benefit from an enhanced user experience when accessing research content from outside of their university network. As part of its commitment to finding solutions to problems researchers are facing, Springer Nature has been working with others in the industry and in collaboration with SeamlessAccess.org to address the current sometimes confusing and frustrating experience researchers face trying to access research subscribed to by their university when outside of the institution’s network.
This is because IP authentication, the mechanism by which users are currently commonly identified as being allowed access, is working less effectively and easily as people’s working habits change with many now working off multiple devices in multiple locations. It is leading to more people encountering access blocks when they shouldn’t, resulting in a frustrating experience and time being wasted.
The new solution, to be implemented first by Springer Nature, will see users from participating institutions only having to log in once per browser, after which nature.com will remember their institutional affiliation, making future authentication when outside of their institution’s network easier. This will be provided in partnership with institutions so logging in to their institution will still be required when their session is expired by their institution.
As this service is implemented by more organisations, the same clear call to action will appear and the institutional selection will be remembered across platforms. This allows researchers to move seamlessly between content published by different publishers/organisations, experience a consistent user experience, and provides even greater benefits to researchers and other users.
Steven Inchcoombe, Chief Publishing Officer, Springer Nature, said:
“Supporting the research community is at the heart of what we do. As the publishing landscape continues to evolve, Springer Nature is committed to meeting the changing requirements of researcher needs and this partnership is a core example of that. We want our users to be able to access research easily, swiftly and crucially, when and how they want to. RA21’sRecommended Practice and SeamlessAccess.org’s services enables us to do this on a greater, and industry-wide scale, and follows our initiative with ResearchGate and SharedIt service, all of which seek to make research as easy as possible to discover, access, use, re-use and share”
Heather Flanagan, Program Director, SeamlessAccess.org further commented:
“SeamlessAccess.org is working with stakeholders across scholarly information to make use of resources easy anytime, anywhere, and on any device while supporting privacy best practices. We are delighted to see SpringerNature among the first to implement our recommendations and look forward to many more successful integrations in coming months.”
Users of nature.com will be the first to benefit from this enhanced user experience, and will be rolled out across Springer Nature’s other content platforms, including SpringerLink.
