IOP Publishing announces its first transformative agreement in Finland

Three year read and publish agreement signed with VTT

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iop publishing
Photo: IOP Publishing

IOP Publishing (IOPP) has signed its first open access (OA) transformative agreement in Finland.

The three year ‘read and publish’ agreement with the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT) enables the institution’s authors to publish open access in 58 hybrid IOPP and partner journals at no cost to authors at the point of publication.

Articles will be published under an open license (CC-BY), allowing authors to retain copyright. As well as barrier-free publication, researchers and students at VTT will have reading access to all IOPP journals.

Owned by the Finnish state, VTT is one of Europe’s leading research institutions. They advance the utilization and commercialization of research and technology in commerce and society.

The transformative ‘read and publish’ license with VTT is the most recent in a series of similar agreements that IOPP has reached around the world with research institutions and consortia.

Steven Hall, managing director, IOP Publishing, said, “These agreements make a real difference, offering an effective, sustainable, and responsible approach to OA acceleration. Where we have similar licences in place, we have seen a significant increase in open access publication by authors in participating institutions. We’re delighted to have reached this agreement with VTT and look forward to making OA publishing as easy as possible for their researchers.”

Anita Laamanen, specialist, Business Intelligence Services at VTT, said, “Making sure our researchers’ work is as accessible as possible and giving them the choice to publish OA is extremely important to VTT. This agreement will be of great benefit to the scientists here, and we’re pleased to be working with IOP Publishing to increase the impact of their work.”

2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India

Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.

The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry. While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.

The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.

Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.

Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.

Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.

– Naresh Khanna

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