IOPP announces a trio of OA agreements in Asia

IOP Publishing (IOPP) says the three-year read and publish agreements with the University of Hong Kong (HKU), the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) will deliver a range of benefits, including:

• No article publication charges for authors publishing in all IOPP journals and almost all partner journals
• Publications in both hybrid and gold open access (OA) journals are covered
• Publishing under an open licence (CC-BY), allowing authors to retain copyright
• Reading access to all IOPP research published over the last 10 years

The three agreements come as the Research Grants Council (RGC) in Hong Kong sets out its guiding principles in support of OA recognising that ‘since open access is a mindset-shifting process that involves the participation of stakeholders including researchers, university administrators, the RGC and the public, it should be implemented at a measured pace and with concerted efforts.’

Julian Wilson, chief sales officer at IOPP said: “Reaching agreements with three prestigious institutions from Hong Kong demonstrates that OA is gaining momentum globally. What’s more, it’s exciting to see OA efforts advancing in Asia, given the region’s significant contribution to the world of research. We see transformative agreements (TAs) as the most effective way to accelerate the transition to a more open future at scale which is why we’ll continue to proactively secure them across the globe.”

The three new agreements are the most recent in a series of TAs that IOPP has reached with research institutions and consortia around the world. IOPP has now TAs with 900 institutions in 33 countries.

Open access publishing increases the visibility of research, added the publisher. This is reflected in IOPP user data which shows that articles published OA receive 81% more downloads and 31% more citations.