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How Springer Nature used online communities to drive journal engagement and increase author satisfaction and loyalty

Zapnito enables us to empower our authors to express themselves and to discover each other’s research in ways that few traditional publishing platforms allow.

Ed Gerstner Director of Journal Policy & Strategy

Springer Nature advances discovery by publishing robust and insightful research, supporting the development of new areas of knowledge, making ideas and information accessible around the world, and leading the way on open access.

Nature Microbiology

Nature Microbiology is Springer Nature’s online community dedicated to uniting experts from within the microbiology industry, and an example of one of their scientific research communities.

It helps them promote their research, connects them to both their peers and Nature editors, and fosters collaboration.

For Springer Nature, the community drives journal submissions and subscriptions and increases brand loyalty.

Skin Research at Dior Science

Springer Nature is able to diversify revenue streams with sponsored projects that require user-generated content.

Skin Research at Dior Science is one example of these projects. In partnership with Dior, the community provides resources to skin research doctors and experts. It hosts content in Chinese, Japanese and Korean.

Springer Nature are able to provide a quick and creative content marketing solution to these sponsored projects, setting up the site in just a few weeks.

Scientific Reports Editorial Site

Springer Nature now have 4 private communities of editorial board members. 

These communities provide all the information they need to be an effective board member and to benefit from the connection the role brings to the BMC team and fellow editors. 

For Springer Nature, it enables efficient group communication, adds prestige to the role of board member to aid recruitment, and helps get more value from the editorial board.

They have worked with Zapnito to create a wide array of communities, twenty of which remain active today. These range from subject-focused research communities, to online training products.

  • 20+ active communities
  • 60% of authors say they are more likely to submit their next article to Springer Nature
  • Over 30 journals invite authors to contribute Behind the Paper posts
  • 2400 content items to date
  • Over 3 million page views
  • 95% author satisfaction rate