Links and resources available below may be useful for those interested in pursuing open access publication or advocating for open access to others in the academic community, to grant-making institutions, or even to bodies of government. Resources supplied here include guides, presentation materials, and handbooks produced by SPARC and other organizations. These provide definitions and developments in the field, and point those interested to the growing success of Open Access. Please write to sparc[at]arl[dot]org with additions or corrections.
Learning
SPARC supports the Budapest definition of Open Access:
“By open access, we mean its immediate, free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search or link to the full text of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software or use them for any other lawful purpose…”
The Internet provides a new opportunity to bring information to a wider audience at virtually no marginal cost, and allow them to use it in new, innovative ways. This has resulted in a call for new framework to allow research results to be more easily accessed and used—a call for Open Access.
This new SPARC guide and Web site are available to help institutions that are curious to better understand why funds are being launched, the considerations and decisions involved in their creation, and how existing funds are being managed. Should you choose to move forward with creating an open-access fund, these tools will help you to do so with your best foot forward.
If you're considering a campus open-access policy, or already have one in development, SPARC is here to help. SPARC has coordinated with open-access policy leaders and experts to develop this new set of resources to support data-driven, community-engaging, and successful open-access policy development at institutions everywhere. Please explore and let us know how we can support you.
This Web site and accompanying guide provide an overview of income models currently being used to support the open-access distribution of peer-reviewed scholarly and scientific journals. These resources will be a useful tool both for publishers exploring new potential sources of income and for libraries weighing where to direct meager library funds.
Publications, articles, and presentations related to Open Access, published by SPARC and other supportive organizations.
OPEN ACCESS: ALL IN THE FAMILY
In celebration of Open Access Week (October 18-24, 2010), SPARC is showcasing the stories of two exceptional families who have embraced Open Access as a value and have advanced their own work – though not always without reservations. The personal stories of brothers Jonathan and Michael Eisen (both evolutionary biologists), along with Neil Buckholtz and his son, Josh (neuroscientists), grappling with the pros and cons of Open Access are now profiled on the SPARC Web site.
The Right to Research: The student guide to opening access to scholarship Developed in close collaboration with students, this guide is a tool student OA advocates will use to engage more of their peers. The Right to Research: helps students recognize the problem of access; introduces the principle of Open Access; indicates how Open Access can make life as a student easier, advance research, widen access to those who need it, and increase visibility for student scholars; and offers ways to support OA. New in January 2008. See The Right to Research Web site for details.
Open Access: A SPARC Brochure This brochure, produced with the Association of Research Libraries and the Association of College & Research Libraries, makes the case for the open access model of scholarly communication and how it benefits authors, readers, teachers, scholars, and scientists alike. Facts and figures demonstrate how open access to scholarly research capitalizes on Internet connectivity to increase a research article's use and impact. The brochure suggests steps authors of journal articles can take to provide open access to their work. This action can be at the local level in providing access to their own journal articles, and at a broader level to support open access publishers.
Attendees at the 2001 Budapest Open Access Initiative Meeting
Directories
SPARC Open Access Program Survey
A resource for librarians and administrators creating events to promote open access among faculty members, this Web site will include details of conferences, seminars, brown-bag lunches, faculty meeting presentations, mailings, and every other form of outreach that you or your colleagues have found successful - or not.
Directory of Open Access Journals This reference covers free, full text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals in all subjects and languages.
Online Discussion Forums
SPARC Open Access Newsletter & Forum
With SPARC support, Peter Suber produces a monthly newsletter that offers in-depth analysis of open access-related issues. Read it online or sign up to receive the email version. You may also wish to join the exchange of ideas in the SPARC Open Access Forum.
SPARC Open Data Discussion List According to the list’s moderator, Peter Murray-Rust of the Unilever Centre for Molecular Sciences Informatics at the University of Cambridge (UK), “The emerging Open Data movement shares many goals with the Open Access and Open Source movements, but encompasses its own distinct issues that are in need of examination by the scientific community. This list is intended to facilitate that important discussion."
Advocacy
Other Supporting Organizations
Explore SPARC's advocacy program for details of international federal and funder policies that support open access, including the Wellcome Trust, Research Councils UK, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, US National Institutes of Health, the US Federal Research Public Access Act, Harvard University, and more.
Open Access Working Group (OAWG)
The Open Access Working Group (OAWG), initiated by SPARC, is a group of like-minded organizations that began meeting in the Fall of 2003 to build a framework for collective advocacy of open access to research. The group seeks to build broad-based recognition that the economic and societal benefits of scientific and scholarly research investments are maximized through open access to the results of that research.
Peter Suber
An advocate for open access, Peter is the scholarly community's town crier for open access. All the latest related news is reported in the frequently updated Open Access News Blog. Key events are noted and discussed in the SPARC Open Access Forum, and a monthly round-up is made in the SPARC Open Access Newsletter.
Attendees at the 2001 Budapest Open Access Initiative Meeting
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