Document used during the OpenCon 2014 Advocacy day.

1. ABOUT OPENCON OpenCon 2014 is the premier conference for students and
early career researchers on the topics of Open Access to research articles, Open
Education, and Open Data. It convenes approximately 175 participants from
around the world with the goal of empowering the next generation of scholars
and researchers to advance the open sharing of knowledge in research,
education and data.
The three-day conference combines a formal program of keynotes and panel
discussions with interactive workshops to build participants’ skills in key areas,
from raising awareness in local communities to effective national and
international collaboration. Unlike most conferences, many of the participants
received full travel scholarships.
OpenCon is organized by the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources
Coalition (SPARC) and the Right to Research Coalition (R2RC), with sponsorship
support from the Max Planck Society, eLife, the Public Library of Science
(PLOS), Microsoft Research, the Association of Research Libraries, Duke
University, UCLA, and many others.
ABOUT SPARC SPARC, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources
Coalition, is an international alliance of academic and research libraries working
to correct imbalances in the scholarly publishing system. With over 200
members, SPARC is a catalyst for action whose agenda focuses on supporting
the emergence of new scholarly communications models that expand the
dissemination of research.
ABOUT THE RIGHT TO RESEARCH COALITION The Right to Research Coalition
(R2RC) was founded by students in the summer of 2009 to promote an open
scholarly publishing system based on the belief that no student should be
denied access to the articles they need because their institution cannot afford
the often high cost of access. Since its launch, the Coalition has grown to
represent nearly 7 million students internationally and counts among its
members the largest student organizations in both the U.S. and Canada.
The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition
21 Dupont Circle NW, Suite 800, Washington, DC 20036 USA
www.sparc.arl.org | +1 (202) 296-2296 | sparc@arl.org