Current Program Plan (2012) (SPARC)

2012 Program Plan

What is SPARC?

SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) is a library membership organization that promotes expanded sharing of scholarship. SPARC believes that faster and wider sharing of outputs of the research process increases the impact of research, fuels the advancement of knowledge, and increases the return on research investments. SPARC is supported by a membership of over 220 academic and research libraries and works in cooperation with its affiliates, SPARC Europe and SPARC Japan.

MISSION

SPARC is a catalyst for action. Its pragmatic agenda focuses on collaborating with other stakeholders to stimulate the emergence of new scholarly communication norms, practices and policies that leverage the networked digital environment, expand the dissemination of research findings, and reduce financial pressures on libraries.

STRATEGY

SPARC’s strategy focuses on reducing barriers to the access, sharing, and use of scholarship. Our highest priority is advancing the understanding and implementation of policies and practices that ensure Open Access (OA) to scholarly research outputs. SPARC’s primary focus is on journal literature, but our evolving strategy reflects an increasing focus on Open Access to research outputs of all kinds – including digital data and open educational resources (OER).

SPARC’s work centers on three key program areas:

1. Educating stakeholders about the problems facing scholarly communication and the opportunities for them to play a role in achieving positive change;

2. Advocating policy changes that advance scholarly communication and that explicitly recognize that dissemination of scholarship is an essential, inseparable component of the research process;

3. Incubating demonstrations of new publishing and sustainability models that benefit scholarship and academe.

PRIORITIES

SPARC activities will advance acceptance and long-term sustainability of an open system for scholarly communication, with a primary focus on advancing open-access models for publishing and archiving the results of scholarly research. SPARC will promote changes in both the infrastructure and culture needed to make Open Access the norm in scholarly communication.

KEY PROGRAM PRIORITIES FOR 2012

Professionalize Advocacy Campaign
Refine strategy, communications, messaging, and resource portfolio to position the organization to operate more effectively on national and international levels.

Convene Discussion(s) on Evaluation, Tenure, and Promotion Practices
Partner with key stakeholders to convene discussion(s) on changing nature of scholarly communications and its potential impact on faculty/researcher evaluation, tenure, and promotion.

Implement International Reorganization
Fully implement reorganization of SPARC’s European program activities according to plan developed and approved in 2011.

Explore Opportunities to Build Internal Capacity
Explore scenarios that would enable SPARC to consider adding an additional professional staff position.

Key Continuing Activities in 2012

Enabling Strategies—SPARC will implement mechanisms for ensuring organizational stability and strength by:

Promoting member retention and recruitment
Deploying regular internal/external communications highlighting SPARC’s programs
Expanding suit of “Members Only” programs and benefits
Deepening member engagement in the SPARC network through Web casts, database-based relationship management, and other means

Advocacy/Policy Strategy—SPARC will continue to raise the public policy profile of Open Access through its highly visible initiative to advance public access to the results of federally funded research through:

Leading advocacy efforts of the OAWG and ATA in educating policymakers on Open Access in advocating for public access policies on Congressional and Executive Branch levels
Supporting research on social/economic benefits of public access to federally funded research
Partnering with key allies to advocate for international open-access/public-access policies
Working with non-profit disease-specific groups to create and implement open-access policies
Participating in coalitions working on “Open” issues
Expanding our current coalitions beyond current constituencies
Establishing Biennial North American Open Access Meeting

Campus Education—SPARC will enable and deepen libraries’ grassroots advocacy efforts to reach faculty, researchers, and students to educate them on critical issues in scholarly communication by:

Promoting/supporting the adoption of campus-based, faculty-driven open-access policies
Regularly presenting SPARC’s activities at meetings of library, publishing, university, faculty, student, and research organizations
Sponsoring Open Access Week and its growing related activities
Updating the ongoing “Author Rights” educational campaign
Continuing SPARC’s E-news, Innovator Series, biannual ALA forum, and other highly visible communication and education activities

Student campaign to raise awareness of Open Access and scholarly communication issues—SPARC will assist in enhancing this rapidly growing program by:

Providing significant resources (both financial and managerial) to ensure the success of the program
Seeking additional grant support/partnerships to help support ongoing coalition activities and expansion
Supporting the first annual Right to Research General Assembly

Open Access Infrastructure Support—SPARC will continue its leadership role in promoting digital repositories and open-access journal outlets by:

Actively partnering with OA publishers to promote awareness and adoption of open-access journal publishing options
Partnering with key digital repository organizations to promote educational programs of interest to the community
Participating in workshops and symposia on access issues, particularly those sponsored by theNSF, National Academies and other federal agencies

Publisher Partnership & Incubation Program—SPARC will continue to support and promote useful examples of open-access or other innovative publishing initiatives by:

Exploring and supporting transition strategies for subscription-based publishers to move to open-access models
Collaborating with university presses and scholarly societies
Working with societies, university presses, and other non-profit publishing initiatives to develop educational materials highlighting successful alternative publishing models for journals, monographs, and other scholarly communication genres
Supporting Academy-based publishing initiatives