16 May 2024
Following the success of our 2023 Read & Publish Open Access (OA) agreement with the Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER), we are delighted to announce
that we have signed a renewal agreement for 2024.
All four institutions that were participating in the 2023 agreement have chosen to renew, and two further institutions (IISER Bhopal and IISER Thiruvananthapuram), have joined the agreement which runs from 1 January 2024 – 31 December 2024. Spur Infosolutions, our representative in India, has been important in helping us to establish this agreement.
Dr Sandeep Pathak, Librarian, IISER Bhopal, says:
“Read & Publish agreements are an alternative to the traditional subscription model. This agreement will help the researchers/authors from IISERs gradually tip the balance of their publishing output towards Open Access, making the process smoother and research more impactful. The recent collaboration with The Company of Biologists signals a promising surge in scholarly output from IISERs, ushering in a new era of accessible and impactful research. With a Read & Publish agreement in place at IISER Bhopal, article processing charges (APCs) will be waived by the publisher and authors can publish gold Open Access (OA). Authors will also have access to every paper in their journal portfolio.”
Dr Sainul Abideen, Librarian, IISER Thiruvananthapuram, says:
“Researchers from IISERs are very keen to publish articles in an Open Access model, without any financial burden. The agreement between the IISER Library Consortium and The Company of Biologists will boost the publications from the participating IISERs.”
Sameer Puri, CEO & Managing Partner at SPUR Infosolutions, says:
“As the exclusive partner for The Company of Biologists, SPUR Infosolutions is proud to facilitate Read & Publish agreements with the IISER Consortium. With this partnership, researchers not only gain unparalleled access to a vast repository of academic literature but also the opportunity to seamlessly publish their own groundbreaking work. Our partnership with the IISER Consortium underscores our commitment to empowering the Indian researcher community with the tools they need to make meaningful contributions to their fields while advancing knowledge and innovation globally.”
Sarah Logan, Regional Sales Manager at The Company of Biologists, says:
“We are very pleased with the collaborative approach of IISER institutions in embracing Read & Publish and extending their support of this programme with us, maximising benefits for researchers. Notably, we have observed a high frequency of collaboration across IISER institutions when publishing with us. Additionally, usage of our publications has increased significantly in all participating IISER institutions during 2023, demonstrating a positive impact on readers as well.
A special thanks goes to SPUR Infosolutions, our exclusive partner in India, for their invaluable support. SPUR's dedication in assisting customers throughout the negotiation and onboarding process has significantly improved the experience for both librarians and our team.
We are confident our Read & Publish OA initiative will continue to benefit the IISER community. We look forward to another successful year of collaboration in 2024.”
View participating institutions | Read the announcement online
About the IISER Consortium
Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) are a group of seven public research institutions first established by the Government of India in 2006 through the Ministry of Education. They provide collegiate education in basic sciences coupled with research at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. All IISERs were declared as Institutes of National Importance by the Parliament of India in 2012 to promote them as leading institutions in the field of basic sciences.
About SPUR
Started in 2016, SPUR Infosolutions has quickly established itself as the leading managed services and solutions provider to global publishers in the Indian subcontinent, while also catering to the information needs of the institutional market. Offerings include end-to-end sales and marketing services for online, print and hybrid content; local currency invoicing and foreign currency remittances; order and payment processing; turnkey distribution and fulfilment services for print-heavy publishers; subscription fraud prevention and detection; and custom solutions structured to address specific pain points. Publishers rely on SPUR
Infosolutions to provide their end-customers in the Indian sub-continent with best-in-class service. Spurinfo.com
About The Company of Biologists
The Company of Biologists is a not-for-profit publishing organisation dedicated to supporting and inspiring the biological community. We partner with libraries and library consortia to enable biologists worldwide to access our leading peer-reviewed hybrid journals — Development, Journal of Cell Science and Journal of Experimental Biology — and our fully OA journals — Disease Models & Mechanisms and Biology Open.
We also have a long-standing and ongoing commitment to Open Access (OA). Our costneutral Read & Publish initiative enables corresponding authors at participating institutions to publish an uncapped number of OA research articles in our hybrid journals and our two fully OA journals – without paying an article processing charge (APC).
We were the first not-for-profit publisher to commit to the Transformative Journal approach and our journals were the first to be awarded Transformative Journal status by Plan S. Over 850 institutions in 51 countries are now participating in our cost-neutral Read & Publish OA initiative. We also have Read & Publish agreements with many library consortia.
Learn more about our new bio-positive publishing initiative, The Forest of Biologists.