The present invention relates to an adhesive printing form attachment layer comprising a support, and a permanently sticky layer suitable for receiving a printing form and fixing a printing form during a printing operation provided on the support, wherein the permanently sticky layer comprises a crosslinked structure obtained by crosslinking a crosslinkable composition comprising at least one polyurethane-based polymeric compound that has two or more crosslinkable groups, which are preferably ethylenically unsaturated groups, and two or more —NHC(O)O— linkages. A method of preparing the adhesive printing form attachment layer and of operating a printing machine using the adhesive printing form attachment layer are also disclosed.