Springer Nature

Berlin

About Springer Nature

Springer Nature is one of the leading publishers of research in the world. We publish the largest number of journals and books and are a pioneer in open research. Through our leading brands, trusted for more than 180 years, we provide technology-enabled products, platforms and services that help researchers to uncover new ideas and share their discoveries, health professionals to stay at the forefront of medical science, and educators to advance learning. We are proud to be part of progress, working together with the communities we serve to share knowledge and bring greater understanding to the world.

We are proud to play an active role in promoting and celebrating diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) across our company and through our publications and activities.

At Springer Nature, our mission is to open doors to discovery, enabling millions of researchers, teachers, clinicians and other professionals to access, trust and make sense of the latest insights so that together we can improve and enrich lives and help to protect our planet for future generations. We believe that DEI are essential to achieving this mission.

We commit to championing DEI in the communities we serve, using our networks and brands. We will work to eliminate barriers to creating, discovering and using knowledge, and supporting equitable outcomes in learning and advancing scholarship — from young learners to PhD-level and beyond.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is one of our highest strategic priorities and our approach has two main streams: an internal focus on DEI within our organisation, and an external view, working with the research, education and professional communities we are a part of.

DEI at a glance

10 employee networks, 1800 members worldwide and 36 local chapters

62% participation in Springer Nature Inclusion and Diversity Global Survey in 2021

Signatory to the Publishers Association’s 10 point Inclusivity Action Plan and the Joint Commitment for Action on Inclusion and Diversity in Publishing

Diversity Team of the Year at the British Diversity Awards 2022

Tailored resources for the research publishing community

Women make up 44% of our global leadership cohort (up 5% since we set a gender representation goal in 2018) and 50% of our management board.

We have set new global representation goals for race and ethnicity in senior leadership roles, and to make sure our senior leaders reflect our global footprint.

Our internal DEI strategy

Strategy focus	Action we’ve taken
Equitable recruitment and succession	Introduced inclusive hiring checklists and training to support hiring managers to make fair decisions. Committed to building more diverse candidate lists by partnering with organisations such as the Black Young Professionals network and using targeted job boards such as HBCUconnect.com.
Representation goals to improve representation in global leadership	To build an inclusive organisation, we set aspirational goals for representation across our senior leadership teams. Women make up 44% of our global leadership cohort: an increase of +5 percentage points from 2018, when we first set our gender representation goal of 45%. Women also make up 50% of our management board. Using learning from our global inclusion and diversity survey, we set new global representation goals for race and ethnicity in senior leadership roles. Globally, we want to increase the proportion of people of colour in senior leadership from approximately 29% to 35% by the end of 2025. We have also set goals to make sure our senior leaders reflect our global footprint.
Talent development that recognises structural inequalities	Launched a mentorship programme targeted at groups that are underrepresented in leadership or experience lower levels of inclusion, based on the results of our Inclusion and Diversity survey. Committed to clear, transparent criteria for promotion eligibility
Inclusive leadership as well as individual responsibility for inclusion	Encouraged employees to set an objective focused on DEI, recognising personal impact on positive cultural change. Hosted a two-week learning campaign on ‘Practising Inclusion’ with 34 training sessions. Developed training on inclusive behaviours to launch in Q3 2022, building on existing training on Unconscious Bias and Anti-harassment.
Investment in our employee networks	Introduced a governance structure and series of guides, in addition to new support measures, such as setting aside a percentage of work time for employees to use on network activity. Added employee network representation on the DEI Council Established annual meetings with network leaders and the Executive Board

Explore more content on DEI in our organisation:

Learn more about our strategy from General Counsel and DEI champion Rachel Jacobs

Our careers website: find out more about working with us.

Read about our commitment to making Springer Nature a sustainable business

Discover more about why people are at the heart of our business in the 2023 Sustainable Business report

Springer Nature’s Opening Doors Internship Programme

The Springer Nature Opening Doors internship is a paid opportunity for students and recent graduates in the UK, US and Germany to gain experience in research, education and science news publishing in our journals, books or magazines.

Many groups and perspectives are currently underrepresented in the publishing industry, which is a challenge that we are actively trying to address at Springer Nature. We are seeking candidates who believe they can contribute to diversity, equity and inclusion in our organisation, in our content, or both. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds, and we particularly encourage candidates from historically underrepresented groups to apply, including but not limited to Black people, Indigenous people and people of colour, people from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, LGBTQ+ people, people from underrepresented social castes, religious minorities and people with a disability and/or a neurodivergent condition.

Applicants should be currently enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate programme, or have recently graduated. Starting in June 2024, the internship can last up to six months.

Interns will join one of our teams in Research Publishing, Education, Healthcare, Solutions or Sustainability, contributing to real projects and benefiting from the experience of talented professionals. They will also have the chance to:

Learn more about the job application process at Springer Nature with our Talent Attraction teams

Meet regularly with a buddy from one of our employee networks

Join events to learn more about the different business areas at Springer Nature

Get involved with opportunities relating to diversity, equity and inclusion and the impact of research on sustainability

Build your network with the other interns and connections across Springer Nature

Be part of progress © Springer Nature

Find out more about the internship programme from Michelle He’s blog post. Michelle was part of the first internship in 2023.

Applications for the 2024 programme are now closed, but please keep checking back on this page for updated information regarding the 2025 call for applications.