October 22, 2012
ESF-EMRC Science Policy Briefing "Open Access in Biomedical Research"
Just in time for Open Access Week 2012 the European Medical Research Councils (EMRC) of the European Science Foundation (ESF) have now finalized their Science Policy Briefing on Open Access in Biomedical Research. This report aims to accelerate the adoption of open access to research articles in the biomedical sciences.

October 19, 2012
HowOpenIsIt? New Guide Released
On behalf of PLOS, SPARC, and OASPA I want to thank everyone who contributed during the open review process of the Open Access Spectrum guide. In preparation for Open Access Week (October 22-28), we are issuing the final version today so that people can download and print it for their use next week and beyond. This resource outlines the core components of open access (e.g., reader rights, reuse rights, copyrights, author posting rights, etc.) across the continuum from “open access” to “restricted access”.

October 8, 2012
“HowOpenIsIt?” Now Closed for Public Comment
On behalf of PLOS, SPARC and OASPA I want to thank everyone who provided comments on the open access resource guide, “HowOpenIsIt?” We received more than fifty comments and are reviewing all the feedback. To date, your feedback is prompting changes to 17 of the original 27 openness components. We plan to release a final version during Open Access Week (October 22-28, 2012).  We will also share a high level summary of the comments.

September 25, 2012
HowOpenIsIt? - Request for Public Comment
Not all Open Access is created equal.  To move beyond the seemingly simple question of “Is it Open Access?” PLOS, SPARC and OASPA have collaborated to develop a resource called “HowOpenIsIt?” This resource identifies the core components of open access (OA) and how they are implemented across the spectrum between "Open Access" and "Closed Access".  We recognize there are philosophical disagreements regarding OA and this resource will not resolve those differences. 

April 24, 2012
You've signed on to the Boycott, now what?
In light of the recent, failed attempt to abridge access to scholarly articles via the Research Works Act (RWA), a growing number of researchers have expressed their frustration with the status quo in scholarly publishing, and are interested in learning about concrete actions that they can take to effect positive change. SPARC has prepared this resource for our members, to help you to engage your faculty and researchers, and talk with them about options for taking such action.

April 17, 2012
Signed Boycott, Now what?
Over the past few months, there has been a growing number of scholars on our campuses who have signed onto or expressed support for the actions called for in the boycott statement on the "Cost of Knowledge" website. SPARC has prepared a “suggested next steps” resource. These are meant to provide suggestions for helping to support the conversion of sentiments surrounding the boycott into constructive, tangible action that can help re-shape the current scholarly communication system.

March 21, 2012
Library Publishing Services: Strategies for Success: Final Research Report (March 2012)
This report presents the finding of a project which investigated the extent to which publishing has now become a core activity of North American academic libraries and suggested ways in which further capacity could be built. The research described (consisting of a survey, some case studies, three workshops, and a set of further reading recommendations) was mainly conducted between October 1, 2010, and September 30, 2011.

August 5, 2010
Economic and Social Returns on Investment in Open Archiving Publicly Funded Research Outputs
The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) provided support for a feasibility study, to outline one possible approach to measuring the impacts of the proposed US Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA) on returns to public investment in R&D. The aim is to define and scope the data collection requirements and further model developments necessary for a more robust estimate of the likely impacts of the proposed FRPAA open archiving mandate. The study was authored by John Houghton with Bruce Rasmussen and Peter Sheehan of the Centre for Strategic Economic Studies at Victoria University.

March 18, 2010
Campus-based open-access Publishing Funds: A Practical Guide to Design and Implementation
The SPARC guide, by Greg Tananbaum, is not an advocacy document promoting the launch of Open-access Funds. Rather, we aim 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, this guide will help you to do so with your best foot forward.

October 7, 2009
Income models for Open Access: An overview of current practice (Browse or download)
“How do we pay for Open Access?” is a key question faced by publishers, authors, and libraries as awareness and interest in free, immediate, online access to scholarly research increases. SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) examines the issue of sustainability for current and prospective open-access publishers in a timely new guide, “Income models for Open Access: An overview of current practice,” by Raym Crow.

April 22, 2009
SCOAP3 – Frequently Asked Questions and Answers

January 23, 2009
Campus-based publishing partnerships: A guide to critical issues

Raym Crow, SPARC Senior Consultant

Campus-based publishing partnerships offer the academy greater control over the intellectual products that it helps create. To fully realize this potential, such partnerships will need to evolve from informal working alliances to long-term, programmatic collaborations.

SPARC’s Campus-based Publishing Partnerships: A Guide to Critical Issues addresses issues relevant to building sound and balanced partnerships, including: Establishing governance and administrative structures; Identifying funding models that accommodate the objectives of both libraries and presses; Defining a partnership’s objectives to align the missions of the library and the press; Determining what services to provide; and Demonstrating the value of the collaboration.

SPARC’s Campus-based Publishing Partnerships will help libraries, presses, and academic units to define effective partnerships capable of supporting innovative approaches to campus-based publishing.

April 1, 2008
OPEN DOORS AND OPEN MINDS: What faculty authors can do to ensure open access to their work through their institution - A SPARC/Science Commons white paper

February 3, 2008
Complying with the NIH Public Access Policy - Copyright Considerations and Options - A SPARC/Science Commons/ARL joint white paper
Michael W. Carroll, Villanova University School of Law On January 11, 2008, the National Institutes of Health (“NIH”) adopted a revised Public Access Policy for peer-reviewed journal articles reporting research supported in whole or in part by NIH funds. Under the revised policy, the grantee shall ensure that a copy of the author’s final manuscript, including any revisions made during the peer review process, be electronically submitted to the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed Central (“PMC”) archive and that the person submitting the manuscript will designate a time not later than 12 months after publication at which NIH may make the full text of the manuscript publicly accessible in PMC.

June 1, 2006
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.

February 1, 2006
Publishing Cooperatives: An Alternative for Society Publishers - A SPARC Discussion Paper

Raym Crow, SPARC Senior Consultant

This SPARC discussion paper proposes a federation of discipline-specific publishing cooperatives as an alternative operating model for society publishers. Publishing cooperatives would be owned, capitalized, and controlled by nonprofit publishers as users, with publishers sharing risks and benefits proportional to their use of the cooperative. Such publishing cooperatives can provide a scaleable publishing model that aligns well with the values of the academy while providing a practical financial framework capable of sustaining society publishing programs and supporting their transition to non-subscription funding models.

August 1, 2005
Sponsorships for Nonprofit Scholarly & Scientific Journals: A Guide to Defining & Negotiating Successful Sponsorships
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.

December 30, 2004
The Future of Scholarly Communication in the Humanities: Adaptation or Transformation?

Richard K. Johnson, Fmr Executive Director, SPARC

Everywhere enterprises are weighing the demands of adapting or transforming their business models against the risk of ultimate extinction. Music, motion pictures, retailing, travel, telecommunications – giant changes are underway in these industries and many others. For agile players, evolving consumer demands may present new opportunities. Others will be left behind like buggy whip makers as new entrants emerge. But we’re interested in scholarship, not commerce. Are the rules different here?

July 24, 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.

June 15, 2004
The SPARC Initiative: a Catalyst for Change

Bas Savenije, Utrecht University Librarian & LIBER representative to the SPARC Steering Committee

SPARC was started in 1997 by a number of large research libraries in the US. Its main goal was restore a competitive balance of the STM journals publishing market. A number of programmatic areas were initiated in order to realize this goal: SPARC Alternatives, SPARC Leading Edge, SPARC Scientific Communities, and SPARC Communication and Advocacy. Since two years SPARC puts a special emphasis on Open Access, including institutional repositories. The paper gives an overview of the activities of SPARC and its partners in these areas. The results are evaluated and compared with the measures defined in 1997. Finally, the paper describes the possibilities for libraries to contribute to the realization of SPARC’s goals.

March 4, 2004
Open Access: Unlocking the Value of Scientific Research

Richard K. Johnson, Fmr Executive Director, SPARC

We see it all around us: industries are changing and adapting in response to new information and communications technologies. In the music industry, for example, a struggle is underway between companies with a financial interest in defending their pre-Internet business model and the demands of the emerging online marketplace. Similarly, journal publishing’s entrenched print regime is locked in a battle with those who seek to achieve the benefits of a more open exchange of information by utilizing “open access” publishing strategies.

February 24, 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 1, 2004
Publishing Open Access Journals
Public Library of Science

January 24, 2004
When a Society Journal Changes Publisher

January 24, 2004
Open Access