For profit publisher moves to make peace with OA site

For-profit publisher Springer Nature and open access portal Research Gate are “cautiously optimistic” that they can  find a way for “sharing scientific journal articles online, while at the same time protecting intellectual property rights.” (Thanks to a learned reader for the pointer).

There are no details but this looks like a variation on one of the commercial publishers of journals three responses to open access providers of research that appears in subscription-publications; if you can’t beat them buy them. Another is to sue OA providers, which other publishers are said to be preparing to do to Research Gate. A third is to provide value-add research tools that make journal databases indispensable, which in combination with doing deals with OA archives surely has the best chance of success.