Policy & Advocacy
SPARC advocates for policies at the local, national, and international level that promote openness in research and education. Listed below are SPARC's active policy priorities. Click here to see previous policies SPARC has advocated for.
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Tracking Emerging Trump Administration Actions Related to Open Access
Open AccessSPARC is supporting Peter Suber’s efforts to track emerging Trump Administration actions on open access to research as well as efforts to capture and preserve government science data. You can track the relevant daily developments in these openly-accessible Mastodon threads.
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2024 U.S. Department of Education Negotiated Rulemaking
Open EducationThe U.S. Department of Education began a process known as negotiated rulemaking to review and update a variety of higher education regulations including one related to the management of federal financial aid funds or "Cash Management."
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2022 Updated OSTP Policy Guidance
Open Access · Open DataIssued on August 25, 2022, OSTP's updated policy guidance calls on all federal agencies to generate policies that eliminate the current 12-month waiting period for access to the outputs of federally funded research, including articles and data.
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The American Science Acceleration Project (ASAP)
Open AccessThe sponsors of the American Science Acceleration Project (ASAP), a bipartisan Senate initiative that aims to make American science "ten times faster" by 2030, issued a Request for Information (RFI) seeking recommendations on mechanisms to help achieve ASAP’s main objectives. SPARC's full...
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NASA’s Updated Scientific Information Policy for Science Mission Directorate (SMD)
Open Access · Open DataOn December 8, NASA's Science Mission Directorate (SMD) released an important update to its comprehensive Scientific Information Policy (SPD-41a) to provide guidance on the open sharing of publications, data, and software .
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California’s Zero Textbook Cost Degree Program
Open EducationCalifornia invested $115 million to develop Zero Textbook Cost degrees at the state's community colleges.
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Public Access Language in the U.S. Innovation & Competition Act (USICA)
Open AccessThe House and Senate are considering language that supports providing public access to taxpayer-funded research results in a larger package of competition legislation.
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Open Textbook Pilot Grant Program
Open EducationThe Open Textbook Pilot offers grants to U.S. Colleges and universities to expand the use of open textbooks. SPARC is working to renew and expand funding for this program.
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The Affordable College Textbook Act (H.R.1886/S.740)
Open EducationThe Affordable College Textbook Act seeks to reduce the cost of textbooks at U.S. colleges and universities by expanding the use of open textbooks.
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Stopping the Cengage/McGraw-Hill Merger
After intense opposition from stakeholder groups and a year of regulatory review, the Cengage/McGraw-Hill has been called off. The merger would have remade the textbook market as a duopoly, and its termination prevents significant harm to students.
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