SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING & ACADEMIC RESOURCES COALITION – SPARC Europe SPARC Europe Future Directions and Strategies Towards New Models of Scholarly Communication Future Directions and Strategies Towards New Models of Scholarly Communication David Prosser SPARC Europe Director

Future Directions and Strategies Future Directions and Strategies 10:00Welcome and introduction to SPARC Europe strategy and activities, David Prosser 10:30Application of strategic aims at the local institution, Bas Savenije 11:00 Coffee 11:30Breakout discussions 12:00Breakout report back 12:25Summary and conclusions, David Prosser 12:30Close

SPARC Europe Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition Formed in 2002 following the success of SPARC (launched in 1998 by the US Association of Research Libraries) Encourages partnership between libraries, academics, societies and responsible publishers Originally focused on STM, but coverage expanding Has over 110 members in 14 countries By acting together the members can influence the future of scholarly publishing

The Effect of the Internet Opportunities for expanded access and new uses offered by –ever-expanding networking –evolving digital publishing technologies and business models New dissemination methods Better ways to handle increasing volume of research generated 90% of journals now online

SPARC Europe - Mission SPARC Europe aims to promote an open scholarly communication system in Europe through advocacy and education, the promotion of new models, and partnerships with all interested stakeholders By taking leadership in the debate about Open Access, acting as a catalyst through partnerships with all interested stakeholders, and coordinating lobbying actions within Europe for the benefit of researchers and society at large in Europe and beyond.

Scholarly Communications as Public Policy Scholarly Communication is being impacted by a number of public policy drivers; The ‘knowledge economy’ (e.g. the Lisbon agenda) Accountability and assessment – ‘value for money’ E-Science / E-Research Concerns regarding access to data and Public Sector Information Freedom of Information Culture Social agent – the ‘Facebook Generation’

Open Access Policies SPARC Europe making the argument at different levels: Research groups Universities Research centers Funding bodies Governments National and international bodies

Influencing Policy In 2007 SPARC Europe and the Knowledge Exchange partners co- sponsored petition collected 22,000 signatories calling on the Commission to adopt it’s OA study’s recommendations. ( –University associations –Portuguese Rectors Conference, Hochschulrektorenkonferenz (Germany), Irish Universities Association, Finnish Council of University Rectors, Association of Swedish Higher Education, Norwegian Association of Higher Education Institutions, Conference of Italian University Rectors –Research funders –European Research Council, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, German Research Council, Austrian Science Fund, Spanish National Research Council, Wellcome Trust, Swiss National Science Foundation, CNRS, INRIA, Medical Research Council, Association of Medical Research Charities (UK), Max Planck Society, Swedish Research Council –National academies –Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History & Antiquities, Royal Flemish Academy of Arts and Sciences, Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, Royal Scientific Society of Jordan, Schweizerische Akademie der Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Academia Romana, Hungarian Academy of Sciences

European Commission Pilot Project EC pilot launched in August 2008 to give OA to results from approximately 20% of projects from the 7 th Research Framework Programme (FP7) - especially in health, energy, environment, social sciences and information and communication technologies. Grantees required to: –deposit peer reviewed research articles or final manuscripts resulting from their FP7 projects into an online repository, with either six or twelve month embargo (depending on subject area). The European Research Council (ERC) In December 2007 the ERC issued Guidelines for Open Access and the ERC Scientific Council has established the following interim position on open access:Guidelines for Open Access –All peer-reviewed publications from ERC-funded research projects be deposited on publication into an appropriate research repository where available and subsequently made Open Access within 6 months of publication. –The ERC is keenly aware of the desirability to shorten the period between publication and open access beyond the currently accepted standard of 6 months.

Practical Tools - Institutional Repositories SPARC Europe has supported OpenDOAR (Directory of Open Access Repositories) An authoritative directory of academic open access repositories List of over 1400 repositories Can be used to search across content in all listed repositories Gives information on best practices for repository polices (copyright, re-used of material, preservation, etc.)

Practical Support – Open Access Journals SPARC Europe also supports the Lund Directory of Open Access Journals ( – lists 4250 peer-reviewed open access journalshttp:// In 2008 we launch, with the DOAJ, the SPARC Europe Seal for Open Access Journals The Seal sets standards for OA journals in: –Copyright regimes – journals should use CC-BY licenses –Provision of metadata to allow greater resource discovery Approximately 10% of DOAJ titles meet the criteria Many more now have clear copyright statements

Practical Support – Open Access Journals Also in 2008 SPARC Europe helped to launch the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA - to represent the interests of open access publishers OASPA carries out its mission through exchanging information, setting standards, advancing models, advocacy, education, and the promotion of innovation. First Conference on Open Access Scholarly Publishing (COASP) to be held in Lund, Sweden in September ( In his round-up of 2008 Peter Suber highlighted the Seal and OASPA as amongst the year’s most significant developments

Community Development SPARC Europe has been heavily involved in developing the Open Access community: –We co-organise and co-sponsor the OAI series of meetings in Geneva –We co-organised the Open Scholarship meeting in Glasgow –We have also sponsored a number of additional community meetings

Community Development Each year we announce the latest winner of the SPARC Europe Award for Outstanding Achievements in Scholarly Communications. Winners have been: –2006 Wellcome Trust –2007 SHERPA –2008 Leo Waaijers –2009 To be announced today…

Strategic Partnerships Being a small organisation, SPARC Europe works in partnership with other groups: –SPARC and SPARC Japan –LIBER –EBLIDA –RLUK –JISC –Knowledge Exchange –DRIVER –Etc

The Future SPARC Europe is a member organisation and receives its direction from the members. The Board is the first voice of the members, but we also wish to hear concerns and ideas directly from the members and other interested parties: –What should our mode of working be? –What would our priorities be? –Where can we best use our resources to bring about maximum change –How should we communicate with members and beyond

The Future There are a variety of topics that could be addressed: –Copyright –Data –Preservation and archiving –Peer-review –Teaching materials –Etc and stakeholders: –Librarians –Academics –Scholarly Societies –University Administrators –Governments (including the EC) –Publishers –General Public –Subscription agents –Others

The Future SPARC Europe has made a real difference to the scholarly Communications landscape in the past six years We have strong ‘brand identity’ and are trusted as an honest source of information and opinion What are our next steps? How can we ensure that we continue to be successful in influencing the future of scholarly communications?