Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2011 09:52:53 -0500
Subject: SPARC announces key themes for March event - Program to examine current Open Access practices and policies
For immediate release
November 29, 2011
For more information, contact:
Jennifer McLennan
jennifer [at] arl [dot] org
(202) 296-2296 ext. 121
SPARC announces key themes for March event
Program to examine current Open Access practices and policies
Washington, DC – SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and
Academic Resources Coalition) has announced the program
theme for its next meeting, to be held in Kansas City, March 11
through 13, 2012. With a focus on “Collaborative strategies for
advancing scholarship,” the program will examine recent
developments and track key trends in the growth of open-access
practices and policies in the scholarly and scientific research
arenas.
The SPARC meeting expands on the popular SPARC Digital
Repositories meetings, hosted biennially since 2004, and will
provide a North American-based complement to the popular
“Innovations in Scholarly Communication (OAI)” workshop held
in Geneva in alternating years. The SPARC Open Access meeting
will be a regular forum for a full discussion of Open Access as
an emerging norm in research and scholarship, and will emphasize
collaborative actions that stakeholders can take to effect positive
change.
The program, developed by librarians, publishers, analysts, scholars,
and technologists from five countries, will consider developments
across four topic areas:
*· Open-access publishing – the explosion of gold OA publishing
and how libraries are working to support it.
*· Digital repositories – building a worldwide infrastructure
alongside trust for authors and users.
*· Author rights – key developments and the demand for new
tools and practices to maximize the potential for sharing through re-use.
*· National and institutional policy adoption – the impact on faculty
workflows and the role of the library.
“SPARC’s focus continues to be on encouraging positive action
through collaboration,” said Heather Joseph, executive director.
“Our next meeting will be a valuable chance for everyone with a
stake in scholarly communication – funders, researchers, policy
makers, publishers, librarians, and others – to participate in a
substantive discussion on how we can raise the collective level of
understanding around Open Access and identify opportunities to
work together to move forward.”
Speakers are being identified and invited by the program committee.
A call for proposals to the 2012 Innovation Fair will be issued next
month.
The main SPARC meeting program will take place March 12 & 13,
with pre-conference events on March 11. Further information on pre-
conferences will be posted this winter. All events will be held at the
Intercontinental Hotel in Kansas City.
Registration is open. Early bird rates start at $265 for SPARC members.
Hotel reservations are available for the conference rate of $139 per
night. For more information, visit the meeting Web site at