SPARC Guides are freely available under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License and may be viewed in HTML or downloaded in PDF format below. To download Adobe Acrobat reader, visit the Adobe Web site.
(Listed by date of release)
Create Change
An advocacy and education resource co-sponsored by the Association of Research Libraries and the Association of College and Research Libraries to engage the academic community in reclaiming scholarly communication. (Revised June 2006)
Sponsorships for Nonprofit Scholarly & Scientific Journals: A Guide to Defining & Negotiating Successful Sponsorships
[PDF] This guide describes how nonprofit publishers can evaluate whether a corporate sponsorship program might be appropriate for their journal and, if appropriate, develop a sponsorship program as a component of the journal’s income stream. (August 2005)
Open Access
[PDF] A joint publication of ACRL, ARL, SPARC Europe, and SPARC, Open Access guides the community toward opening channels of communication and accessing scientific and scholarly research online, free of charge, and free of licensing restrictions. (2004)
Setting Up a Nonprofit Tax-Exempt Corporation
There may come a time when you want to establish your scholarly publishing or other venture as a nonprofit corporation qualified for Section 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. There are other types of nonprofit classifications, but 501(c)(3) is the most common and typically the most appropriate for a nonprofit publishing organization. (July 2004)
Guide to Business Planning for Converting a Subscription-based Journal to Open Access, Second Edition
SPARC Consulting Group for the Open Society Institute. [Also in PDF] (February 2004)
Getting Your Journal Indexed
To be recognized as an authoritative, high-quality source of information, a journal must be widely available. Indexing and abstracting services facilitate the broadest dissemination of information by pointing researchers to articles that are relevant to the field. (September 2003)
Guide to Business Planning for Launching a New Open Access Journal, Second Edition
SPARC Consulting Group for the Open Society Institute. [Also in PDF] (July 2003)
Model Business Plan: A Supplemental Guide for Open Access Journal Developers & Publishers, First Edition
SPARC Consulting Group for the Open Society Institute. [Also in PDF] (July 2003)
SPARC Institutional Repository Checklist & Resource Guide
[PDF] A practical guide and overview of the major issues institutions and consortia need to address in implementing an institutional repository. (2002)
Gaining Independence: A Manual for Planning the Launch of a Nonprofit Electronic Publishing Venture
Howard Goldstein (SPARC Consulting Group)
An online manual to help nonprofit and independent organizations plan the launch of a scholarly communications project. (2002)
Media Map: Charting a Media Relations Strategy
[PDF] This guide will help your organization: navigate its new role as policy influencer; communicate effectively with the media; deliver an effective message; sell a particular story; act as a valued media source. And if something goes wrong, this guide will pilot you through the most important points of crisis communications. (2001)
Declaring Independence
A guide copublished with the Triangle Research Library Network that talks directly to editors of scholarly journals and urges them, as central actors, to take control of scholarly communication and improve its dissemination. (2001) Archived October 2005.
Also see: Public Library of Science, February 2004.
A white paper providing a practical discussion of the steps involved in publishing an open-access journal and the associated costs.
[PDF format]
When a Society Journal Changes Publisher
Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers, Advice Note No. 18.
