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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Enabling Strategies—SPARC will implement mechanisms for ensuring organizational stability and strength by:
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:
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:
Student campaign to raise awareness of Open Access and scholarly communication issues—SPARC will assist in enhancing this rapidly growing program by:
Open Access Infrastructure Support—SPARC will continue its leadership role in promoting digital repositories and open-access journal outlets by:
Publisher Partnership & Incubation Program—SPARC will continue to support and promote useful examples of open-access or other innovative publishing initiatives by: