IOP Publishing (IOPP) and the Manipal Academy of Higher Education say they have finalised a Read and Publish agreement as they work towards breaking down barriers to publishing open access (OA) for researchers from lower and lower middle-income countries.
The unlimited OA agreement, which IOP Publishing says is one of its first in India, enables researchers affiliated with the Manipal Academy of Higher Education to publish all their research OA at no cost to them, making their scientific work permanently and freely available online for anyone to read.
The agreement supports the growing appetite from researchers in India to publish their work OA. According to a global study of over 3,000 researchers carried out by IOPP with other society publishers, 62% of physical science researchers from India and Pakistan want to publish OA, but nearly 80% of respondents from these countries said a lack of funds are the main reason for not doing so.
Julian Wilson, chief sales officer at IOPP, said: “A successful transition to an open future relies on an equitable system - one which does not put authors at a disadvantage due to lack of funds. That’s why we’re proactively working on ways to expand our portfolio of TAs globally. More than 900 institutions can now take advantage of the agreements that we have in place across 33 countries.”
Dr. Krishnan Santhosh, professor at the Department of Instrumentation & Control Engineering at the Manipal Academy of Higher Education, said: “Our transformative agreement with IOP Publishing makes it easier for our researchers to share their work openly and enhances the visibility and reputation of the research they do. It is agreements like these that accelerate our vision for an open future to research.”
IOPP says the agreement will help to widen the readership and increase visibility of Manipal Academy of Higher Education funded research. According to IOPP data, OA content is downloaded 80% more than paywalled content and cited 30% more, demonstrating the substantial advantages of publishing research OA.
More information can be found on IOPP’s publishing support website here.
Keep up-to-date with publishing news: sign up here for InPubWeekly, our free weekly e-newsletter.
