Open Access Week 2018: That's right, Read AND Publish

As a small, society publisher that has historically relied on susbscriptions to fund not only our publishing operations, but also those of our society, the shift to a predominantly Open Access world can be somewhat duanting. How to remain sustainable though a major shift in business model? The answer is that we can't do it alone. Luckily, many libraries are recognizing the struggle of society publishers and are more than willing - once approached - to work together to figure out a mutually beneficial model. 

We were thrilled to partner earlier this year with TU Delft and the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands to establish our very first 'Read and Publish' Model. Through this deal, both universities have access to the complete IWA Publishing portfolio and complete Open Access publication rights. What this means is that researchers at these institutions can now effectively publish Open Access in any of our journals for free. From 1 January 2019, they'll also be able to read any article in any of our journals. 

We are also in the process of signing a similar national deal with the Austrian Academic Library Consortium (Kooperation E-Medien Österreich), granting access and free OA publication to over 58 institutions, including TU Vienna, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (Vienna), the University of Innsbruck and Graz University of Technology. This deal should be in place by 1 January 2019. 

At this stage, we are actively looking for new library partners willing to shift from their subscriptions to a Read & Publish model. The advantages of the latter are multi-fold; libraries get access to our full journal portfolio and archive, as well as automatic Open Access publication for all affiliated authors for only slightly more than their current subscription rates. Interested, sbosshart [at] iwap.co.uk (get in touch)!