Our 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.

Our Work

SPARC Europe is dedicated to making a difference. Through our presentations, event organisation and sponsorship, article writing, research and advocacy tools we play an important role in empowering the library community to bring changes within their own institutions and countries. Through collaboration we are able to influence the future of scholalry communications at a national and international level.

SPARC Europe undertakes a number of activities in helping to support the research community in bringing positive change to scholarly communications.  Our main areas of activity are:

• We encourage the development of open access repositories for the work of scholars.
• To support the aims of the Budapest Open Access Initiative by co-operating with individuals and organisations committed to open access to research publications. SPARC Europe also supports the Open Archives Initiative and is one of the organizers of the Workshop Series on the Open Archives Initiative held in Geneva.
• We support scholar-led journal publishing initiatives. The SPARC Declaring Independence programme is supported by SPARC Europe through key members of editorial boards based at European institutions.
• We develop innovative digital publishing enterprises and models that advance fundamental scholarly objectives and values. SPARC Europe helps develop new economic models and services that provide open or affordable access to scholarship. We aid in development of project plans, provide guidance on addressing the institutional marketplace, and promote worthy developments to the SPARC Europe membership and beyond.
• We promote the creation and use of open access tools and sponsor both the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and the Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR)
  
• We encourage discussion of the issues identified on the Create Change web site and a companion brochure. 
  
• We make presentations at European scholarly communications events. The purpose of these presentations is to raise awareness of the limitations of the current scholalry communications models and to propose new models, to raise awareness of the work of SPARC Europe, to up-date existing SPARC Europe members on progress and to attract new members and broader participation in the process of change. 
  
• We encourage the holding of local scholarly communications colloquia and workshops.