SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) is a global coalition that advocates for open access, open data, and open education. They are committed to making “Open” the default for research and education.

SPARC works to enable the open sharing of research outputs and educational materials with the goals of democratizing access to knowledge, accelerating discovery, and increasing the return on our investment in research and education.

How do they do this?

The Internet has changed the way we create and interact with knowledge. No longer do we have to be a world where knowledge is accessible by only the privileged few.

SPARC collaborates with stakeholders—authors, publishers, libraries, students, funders, policymakers and the public. As advocates, they build on the opportunities created by the Internet to promote changes to infrastructure and culture to make research and education Open.

With over a decade of experience and more than 200 members that are primarily academic and research libraries in the U.S. and Canada, SPARC members use its resources and support to promote Open Access to scholarly articles, the open sharing of research data, and the creation and adoption of Open Educational Resources on their campuses.

“Publishing models that restrict access to knowledge for the sake of profit limit everyone’s potential. Widespread adoption of SPARC’s Open Agenda will speed the pace of discovery, benefiting society in many ways, including medical breakthroughs, employment opportunities, and environmental solutions. As a research institution, Dalhousie has a responsibility to participate in this global movement,” said Donna Bourne-Tyson, University Librarian.