1. Sparc Paul Sheehan Director of Library Services Dublin City University paul.sheehan@dcu.ie LIR 25 February 2005

2. 2 SPARC (USA) zAn initiative of the Association of Research Libraries zFormed in 1997 zWhy? Average journal prices increased 226% 1986-2001(5 X CPI) zNow has over 200 institutional members zSPARC Europe 100+ members

3. 3 zAims - Advocacy yWidening the terms/community of debate yNew publishing strategies. Disaggregation/standards zAims - Action zAction - Competition zEvolutionary Ecology Research zPartnership - publishing partners I.e IEEE, CUP, MIT press SPARC (USA)

4. 4 zAction - open access alternatives to subscription zOpen Access journals movement zInstitutional repository movement SPARC (USA)

5. 5 NIH Campaign zNIH single biggest funder of bioscience research in USA ($27b grants in 2005) zUS House of Representatives Appropriations Committee recommended NIH to require papers be made freely available in PubMedCentral within 6 months of publication zSPARC then ran a campaign based on taxpayer access to information. Formed Alliance for Taxpayer Access

6. 6 zPublishers have since fought back zLatest proposal: NIH to encourage authors to lodge papers in PubMedCentral asap & within 12 months of publication zAmerican Physiological Society has sought legal opinion on this NIH Campaign

7. 7 Other campaigns zWhite paper on Society journal publishing & involvement of research funders in this discussion zAnti-trust issues in scholarly and legal publishing. SPARC co-sponsor of symposium on this in Washington DC on February 11th 2005.

8. 8 SPARC Europe zSet up in 2002 under the aegis of Liber, with financial support from JISC zMembers not required to commit to journal support in same way as in USA zMembership exceeds 100. Predominantly northern Europe. Seeking to expand in southern/eastern Europe.

9. 9 SPARC Europe - Roles zAdvocacy/Explanation yPresentations ySubmissions - HoC Science &Technology Committee, EU investigation into scientific publication zStrategic yOpen Access IRs & OA journals zInformation exchange

10. 10 Institutional Repositories zCo-sponsor of Geneva workshops on Open Access zEstablishing directory of Open Access Repositories. Collaboration between SHERPA and Lund zFurthering aims of Budapest Open Access initiative of which it is a signatory

11. 11 Information exchange zTrade information - details of big deals zPolitical information - EU investigation into scientific journals zAdvice: how best to lobby MEPs etc. zAdvice: how best to link with sympathetic international organisations e.g. Open Society Institute.

12. 12 Trends zIdentifying terms of debate - what gets a hearing? zAdvocacy now aimed more at funding bodies zSeeking an understanding with learned society publishers

13. 13 Continuing threats zConsolidating market share... zBundling/consortia deals zLicencing/IP issues zResidual rights, management software, user interfaces.