Past SPARC Policy Priorities
SPARC advocates for policies at the local, national, and international level that promote openness in research and education. Listed below are previous SPARC policy priorities that are no longer active or have already passed. Click here to return to SPARC's active policy priorities.
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Oppose: Research Works Act
Open AccessDefeated: Legislation introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives seeking to prohibit federal agencies from conditioning their grants to require that articles reporting on publicly funded research be made accessible to the public online. Withdrawn by its sponsors on February...
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Oppose: Section 303 of the FIRST Act
Open AccessDefeated: The FIRST Act is not in the best interests of the taxpayers who fund the research, the scientists who make use of it by accelerating scientific progress, and the teachers and students who rely on its availability for a high-quality education, which depend on public access.
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Canadian Tri-Agency Open Access Policy
Open AccessEnacted: Early in 2015, three of the largest research funding agencies in Canada released an open access policy of the publications that result from the research they fund.
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California Taxpayer Access to Publicly Funded Research Act (AB 609)
Open AccessEnacted: The California Taxpayer Access to Publicly Funded Research Legislation (AB 609) requires researchers receiving a state-funded grant from the California Department of Public Health to make their published articles publicly accessible. This is a first-of-its-kind state-level...
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The Illinois Open Access to Articles Act (SB 1900)
Open AccessEnacted: As introduced, the legislation would require that all Illinois State Universities and Colleges develop an “open access to research articles policy” within one year of the bill’s passage. See details on the Illinois Open Access to Articles Act.
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NY State Taxpayer Access to Publicly Funded Research Act
Open AccessDid not pass: A bill introduced into the New York State Legislature that would require recipients of New York State research funding to make articles reporting on the results of their funded research freely available to the public via an online database.
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EU Statement on Making All Research Open by 2020
Open Access · Open DataIn a statement released by the Competitiveness Council, EU members agreed to "support a transition to immediate open access as the default by 2020, using the various models possible and in a cost-effective way, without embargoes or with as short as possible embargoes, and without financial and...
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$5 Million for Open Textbooks in FY19 Omnibus
Open EducationCongress answered our call to renew the $5 million Open Textbook Pilot
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Perkins Career and Technical Education (CTE) Act Reauthorization
Open EducationCongress approved a bill reauthorizing the Perkins Career and Technical Education Act, which included provisions permitting OER as an allowable use of funds for state and local activities.
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European Commission Horizon 2020 Framework
Open AccessEnacted: Policy recommendations to European Member States currently include a provision on public access to European publicly-funded research, preferably immediately and in any case no later than six months after publication, with a twelve month embargo permissible in the...
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