Single sign-on (SSO)
Give your patrons access to your content and services via SSO, also called “federated access”. Definition of single sign-on on Wikipedia. We support all SAML 2.0 identity providers but we do not support OpenID, OAuth, or other non-SAML 2.0 services.
Step 1: Set up in your identity provider
Most identity providers
Follow your identity provider’s usual process to set up Springer Nature Link and nature.com. See the “Service provider details” for the metadata you will need. If your institution is a member of a country federation such as those listed on the EduGain site you should automatically have our service provider metadata.
If you set up Springer Nature Link and nature.com separately in your identity provider, give each a unique organisation name to help your patrons choose the correct organisation on our WAYF pages, for example “Company, Inc. (Springer Nature Link)” and “Company, Inc. (nature.com)”. Separate set up is recommended for Okta and Microsoft Azure Active Directory / Entra.
Okta
Springer Nature Link: Setup info (on okta.com) nature.com: Setup info (on okta.com)
Microsoft Azure Active Directory / Entra
Separately for Springer Nature Link and nature.com, do the following:
- Access the Azure portal
- Go to Azure Active Directory > Enterprise Applications > New Application > Non-gallery Application
- Choose a name like “Company, Inc. (Springer Nature Link)” or “Company, Inc. (nature.com)” and click Add
- Go to Single sign-on > SAML
- In Basic SAML Configuration, enter metadata from “Service provider details”
Service provider details
Step 2: Set up in our systems
Most Identity Providers
Send us your identity provider details.OpenAthens
Send us your OpenAthens details.Okta
Send us your Okta details.Microsoft Azure Active Directory / Entra
Send us your Microsofft Azure Active Directory / Entra details.Entity ID: use the Azure AD Identifier which you will find in section 4 on the setup page. It will look something like https://sts.windows.net/af2d669a-8754-49df-9b01-aa92d453b591/
Name of your organisation
- If a custom organisation name has been chosen, we display that,
- else if a name is set in your IdP metadata, we display that,
- else our billing name for your organisation will be displayed
If you use a shared identity provider
Some organisations share an identity provider hosted by a third party such as CSTNet, Rediris, Fédération Education-Recherche and GakuNin. When accessing Springer Nature Link and nature.com the organisation using a third party are identified by an attribute sent in the SAML response, e.g. “eduPersonScopedAffiliation” in the case of most academic institutions. We will need to know the name and value of the attribute.
Optional: Set up WAYFless URLs
Benefits and workflow
Reduce obstacles for patrons and make sure that patrons use the SSO system, by bypassing our WAYF pages.
Create links with WAYFless URLs for your discovery system, catalogue, reading lists, etc. for linking to articles, books, search queries, etc. on nature.com and Springer Nature Link.
When patrons click the links, they will either be taken directly to the content if already logged in, or, they will be taken to your login page to authenticate and then be taken to the content.
Example of WAYFless URL
https://sp.nature.com/saml/login?idp=https%3A%2F%2Fmycompany.com%2Fadfs%2Fservices%2Ftrust&targetUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dgraphene
WAYFless URL format
Springer Nature Link: https://fsso.springer.com/saml/login?idp=[Your entity ID]&targetUrl=[Target URL] nature.com: https://sp.nature.com/saml/login?idp=[Your entity ID]&targetUrl=[Target URL]
Note: The entity ID and target URL should be URL encoded.
Your entity ID E.g. https://mycompany.com/adfs/services/trust
Microsoft Azure Active Directory / Entra: use the Azure AD Identifier which you will find in section 4 on the setup page. It will look something like https://sts.windows.net/se6d332d-1254-55df-9b01-aa99w321b111/
Target URL The address of the article, journal, search query, etc. Must start with https://link.springer.com or https://www.nature.com. E.g. https://www.nature.com/articles/nature25447
Help
How do I know that we are set up?
Your institution will be findable on the nature.com WAYF page and on the Springer Nature Link WAYF page.
How do I know that I am logged in?
- Go to our identity debug page for Springer Nature Link or nature.com.
- Look for “samlProofs”. If the value is not null then a SAML response has been processed correctly, i.e. your Identity provider and our system are both configured correctly.
- Look for “samlCredentials”. If the list of BPIDs is not empty, your entity ID (or entity ID + attributes) has been matched to one or more Springer Nature customer accounts (“business partners”). Any content licensed by that “business partner” can be accessed .
Contact us
If you need assistance, contact customer service.
We support all SAML 2.0 identity providers
- Shibboleth
- OpenAthens
- Microsoft Active Directory Federation Service (ADFS) / Azure / Entra
- GSuite
- Ping Identity
- Okta
- OneLogin
- SailPoint
- and any other SAML 2.0 based identity provider
We do not support OpenID, OAuth, or other non-SAML 2.0 services.
Glossary
Identity provider (IdP)Your institutional authentication system.
Service provider (SP)The Springer Nature Link or nature.com service.
Entity ID / IdentifierA URL (or URN) that uniquely identifies your SAML identity provider. It can be found in your SAML metadata xml file.
Reply URL / Assertion consumer service URLAn endpoint on the service provider that the identity provider will redirect to with its authentication response.
Start URL / Relay stateThe relay state is used by the IdP to signal to the SP what URL the SP should redirect to after successful sign on.
Sign-on URLURL to the service provider’s sign-on page for the institution.
Where-are-you-from page (WAYF page)Also know as the “discovery page” it presents the user a list of identity providers. It is a page where the user identifies which organisation they belong to. Examples: the Springer Nature Link WAYF page, the nature.com WAYF page.
WAYFless URLA link to a URL on the Springer Nature Link or nature.com sites which allows the user to avoid navigating via the WAYF page.