Our Mission

Sharing knowledge is a human right. SPARC is a nonprofit advocacy organization that supports systems for research and education that enable everyone, everywhere to access, contribute to and benefit from the knowledge that shapes our world. We consider openness a critical enabling strategy for achieving such systems.

Our Objectives

SPARC is a catalyst for action. Our pragmatic agenda focuses on driving policy change, supporting member action, and cultivating communities that advance our vision of knowledge as a public good. 

To promote progress towards our vision, SPARC: 

1. Advocates for policies that enable open, equitable systems of research and education. 
2. Educates community members on opportunities to take action to enable such systems.
3. Incubates projects that promote new models that directly support such systems. 

SPARC is committed to cultivating healthy communities, and places a premium on actively supporting the people doing the day-to-day work of opening up research and education. We work diligently to ensure that our own internal operations and activities reflect our community’s values,  and regularly review our practices and structures and make adjustments to ensure alignment. 

Our Strategic Priority Areas

This year, we’ll work to accelerate the significant momentum we have built with our members, concentrating our activities in the following strategic areas:

Policy & Advocacy

SPARC will play a leadership role in securing policies that advance openness and equity in research and education systems. Specific actions will include:

• Advocating for policies that ensure immediate free access to and full reuse of publicly funded research outputs in the U.S. and Canada. 
• Supporting effective implementation of key regulations and guidance, including the OSTP Memorandum on Ensuring Free, Immediate and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research.
• Promoting authors rights via educational resources and advocacy campaigns.
• Advancing U.S. national coordination on open education strategies through coalition and collaborative work.
• Advocating for policies that support open education, including continued funding for the U.S. Open Textbook Pilot and limits to automatic textbook billing. 
• Advocating for AI policies that promote openness and transparency and center the public interest. 
• Educating policymakers and regulators on the privacy and competition risks posed by publishers’ evolution into data analytics-driven platform businesses.

SPARC will also continue to play an active role in supporting allies in shared areas of concern including algorithmic bias, library digital ownership, and internet freedom issues.

Realigning Incentives

SPARC will equip high-level decision makers to incentivize the open sharing of research outputs and educational materials at critical decision points. Specific actions will include:

• Convening campus presidents and provosts through the Higher Education Leadership Initiative for Open Scholarship (HELIOS Open) to guide, advise on, and participate in opportunities to advance open scholarship incentives individually and collectively.
• Integrating the work of the HELIOS Open leader community and network with other key communities to accelerate and scale progress on incentive reform.
• Convening funders via the Open Research Funders Group (ORFG) to promote practices and policies that support open sharing of research outputs among private funders.
• Working with funders and higher education leaders to complete the final year of the NASEM Roundtable on Aligning Incentives for Open Science, and explore opportunities for integrating Roundtable workstreams into ongoing NASEM priority structures. 

Enabling Systems That Advance Knowledge Sharing

SPARC will advance systems that promote open knowledge sharing  through targeted work on open business models, content, infrastructure, and processes. Specific actions will include:

• Providing comprehensive resources that increase community understanding and support of open models:
  • Providing a comprehensive landscape map to guide library assessments of open model strategies;
  • Addressing both open science publishing processes and outputs; 
  • Increasing support for Subscribe to Open (S2O), Diamond OA, and other inclusive publishing models;
  • Promoting the benefits of linking multiple S2O offers.  
• Advancing institutional repositories as critical infrastructure via the USRN Network.
• Collaborating with HELIOS Open to support campus decision making to promote open scholarship.
• Convening a Negotiations Community of Practice to support libraries in improving their negotiating power with vendors and aligning fiscal commitments with values.
  • Organizing regular vendor-specific negotiation discussions to improve libraries’ negotiating position and reduce information asymmetries with publishers.
  • Supporting an evolving set of working groups to address key areas of negotiation work, including data analysis and aligning negotiation with strategic priorities.
  • Producing and maintaining negotiations resources, including the Big Deal Cancellation Tracker, Unbundling Profiles, & Contracts Library. 
• Addressing the risks posed by publishers’ transitioning into data analytics-driven platform businesses
  • Convening a Privacy & Surveillance Community of Practice to support libraries in addressing the risks posed by specific vendor practices.
  • Producing vendor-specific reports on privacy practices and other resources to equip libraries to take action, including talking points and model contract language.
  • Providing resources to help institutions address student data privacy issues in digital courseware contracts, including “Inclusive Access” programs.
• Cultivating communities that provide a healthy foundation for systems that advance knowledge sharing, including the Open Education Conference and community as well as the global OpenCon community.