Advocacy organizations for OA

This list is part of the Open Access Directory.


 * This is a list of organizations which make OA advocacy a significant part of their mission. For this purpose, advocacy goes beyond providing OA to other forms of promoting OA.


 * Please annotate organizations with the location of their headquarters, the nations or regions in which they work, the sorts of advocacy in which they engage, and their launch date.
 * If organizations have notable OA advocacy projects, please list them under the organizations rather than as separate entries.


 * If an organization has since folded, please include it with an annotation rather than exclude it.


 * Related lists in OAD: Institutions that support open access.

A

 * @ccess
 * An offshoot of the Open Knowledge Foundation.
 * Focused on BOAI-compliant OA, worldwide.
 * Launched February 2012.


 * Access to Knowledge Global Academy
 * Based at the Information Society Project of Yale Law School.
 * Focused on "research, education, and policy advice promoting access to knowledge" worldwide, and especially in developing countries.
 * Launched in September 2008.


 * Access to Knowledge for Development Center (A2K4D)
 * Based in Cairo.
 * Focused on A2K in the developing world.
 * Launched in February 2010.


 * access2research
 * Focused on the campaign for OA and free access over the Internet to journals.
 * Focused on promoting taxpayer-funded research and OA.


 * African Access to Knowledge Alliance (AAKA) (no web site)
 * Based in Botswana.
 * Focused on A2K in Africa, including OA.
 * Launched as the Africa Copyright and Access to Information Alliance (ACAIA) on November 28, 2005, and re-launched as the AAKA and registered as a Botswana trust in January 2007.


 * African Commons Project
 * Based in Johannesburg, South Africa.
 * Focuses on turning "communities into active participants in the digital economy and to defend, protect, support and encourage the freedom of South African societies to create, build upon and share knowledge".
 * Launched in 2008


 * African Copyright & Access to Knowledge Project (ACA2K)
 * Based in Johannesburg.
 * Focused on "the relationship between national copyright environments and access to knowledge in African countries".
 * Launched as the ACA2k Network April 25, 2008.


 * Aktionsbündnis: Urheberrecht für Bildung und Wissenschaft
 * Focused on copyright reforms to facilitate OA, especially in Germany.
 * Launched July 5, 2004.


 * Alliance for Taxpayer Access (ATA)
 * Based in Washington D.C. Administered by SPARC (below).
 * Focused on OA for publicly-funded research in the US.
 * A membership organization of US universities, libraries, societies, patient advocacy groups, and public-interest groups.
 * Launched August 24, 2004.


 * Allianz der deutschen Wissenschaftsorganisationen (Alliance of German Science Organisations)
 * Focused on science policy in Germany, including OA.
 * Also see its Arbeitsgruppe Open Access (Working Group on Open Access).


 * American Academic & Scholarly Research Center (AASRC)
 * Based in the United States of America.
 * Focused on "research, education, and policy advice promoting access to knowledge" worldwide, and especially in developing countries.


 * Association for Computers and the Humanities (ACH)
 * Based in the US. "The ACH is the US-based member of the Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO) consortium."
 * Focused on OA in the humanities.
 * Launched in 1978, and ramped up its OA advocacy in 2011-12.


 * Association of Libraries of Czech Universities: OA activities supported by the Association (AKVŠ ČR)
 * OA blog.
 * Open Access in CZ: Website set up for the Open Access Week 2010, with 11 participating institutions.
 * DSpace CZ.


 * Australian Open Access Support Group (AOASG)
 * Based in Australia
 * Focused on increasing "awareness of the importance of open access through deposit of work in repositories, and target advocacy to Australian research institutions, funders and the wider community."
 * Launched in 2012

B

 * Bioline International
 * Based in Brazil.
 * Focused on OA in and from developing countries.
 * Launched in 1993.


 * BioMed Central (BMC)
 * Based in London.
 * In addition to publishing OA journals, advocates green and gold OA worldwide.
 * Also see the BMC advocacy page.
 * Also see the BMC project on Open Access and the Developing World.


 * Biblioteca Regional de Medicina (BIREME)
 * Based in São Paulo, Brazil.
 * Focused on access to medical information in Latin America and the Caribbean.
 * Launched in 1967. Re-launched in 1982 under the name, Latin-American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information, but retaining the acronym (BIREME) of its old name.

C

 * Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL)
 * The Association’s members consists of 29 major academic research libraries across Canada together with Library and Archives Canada, the Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (CISTI) and the Library of Parliament.
 * Plays a leading role in the transformation of scholarly communication in Canada through a number of projects: Data Management, Open Access, Institutional Repositories, Greater Reach for Your Research: Resources for authors.
 * Working Groups include Joint CARL/CRKN Open Access Working Group with The Canadian Research Knowledge Network.


 * Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC)
 * Based in the capital cities of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.
 * "A network of resource, research and training centers," which offers "scholars and practitioners stable opportunities for integrated research, training and collaboration in the region."
 * Established in 2003.


 * Center for Open Science (COS)
 * Based in Charlottesville, Virginia
 * Focused on "improving the alignment between scientific values and scientific practices to improve the accumulation and application of knowledge".
 * Launched in March 2013.


 * Center for the Study of the Public Domain (CSPD)
 * Based at Duke Law School, Durham, North Carolina.
 * Focused on "promot[ing] research and scholarship on the contributions of the public domain to speech, culture, science and innovation, to promote debate about the balance needed in our intellectual property system" and " translat[ing] academic research into public policy solutions."
 * Launched in September 2002.


 * Centre for Open Science (CEON)
 * Based at University of Warsaw Poland
 * Formed as a separate unit within ICM (Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling) to provide tools and advocate for the "OA approach in research."
 * Formed in 2010.


 * Centre for Research Communications (CRC)
 * Founded in April 2009 and situated at the University of Nottingham, UK
 * The CRC houses a portfolio of open-access projects, services and initiatives. These include the SHERPA partnership; the open-access services RoMEO, Juliet and OpenDOAR; the JISC Research Communications Strategy project, Repositories Support Project (RSP), and contribution to the European and international projects OpenAIRE, Dart-Europe and NECOBELAC.


 * Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe (CCSD)
 * Based in Villeurbanne, France.
 * Focused on green OA in France. CCSD operates HAL - a multi-disciplinary open access archive and institutional open access portals.
 * Launched in 2000.


 * Coalition of Open Access Policy Institutions (COAPI)
 * Based at the University of Kansas.
 * Focusing on the implementation of university OA policies in North America.
 * Launched August 3, 2011.


 * Coherence in Information for Agricultural Research for Development (CIARD)
 * Launched January 17, 2008, in Paris.
 * Focused on access to agricultural information and research, especially in developing countries.


 * COLABORA-Comunidad Latinoamericana de Bibliotecas y Repositorios Digitales Latin America Community of Digital Libraries and Repositories. Gathers individuals interested in the subject.


 * Commons Strategies Group
 * Launched October 2010.
 * Focused on "advanc[ing] the commons as a paradigm in diverse settings -- both in theory and practice."


 * Communia Association
 * Based in Brussels.
 * Launched in June 2011.
 * Focused on the mission "to educate about, advocate for, offer expertise and research about the public domain in the digital age within society and with policy-makers."
 * Successor to the Communia Thematic Network, launched in September 2007 and funded by the European Commission until February 2011.


 * Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR)
 * Focused on green OA around the world. A spin-off from DRIVER (below).
 * Launched in October 2009.


 * Conferenza dei Rettori delle Università Italiane (CRUI) Gruppo Open Access
 * Focused on OA policies for Italian universities.
 * The OA working group was launched in early 2006.


 * Couperin
 * French academic consortium that brings together more than 200 members.


 * Creative Commons (CC)
 * Based in San Francisco.
 * Focused on spreading open licenses and libre OA, for all kinds of digital content, worldwide.
 * Launched May 15, 2002.
 * Also see Science Commons, focused on libre OA for research literature and data, launched January 1, 2005.

D

 * Don't Pay Twice
 * Focused on Campaign for OA.
 * Don't Pay Twice is supported by American Medical Student Association and Universities Allied for Essential Medicines.


 * Digital Repositories Infrastructure Vision for European Research (DRIVER)
 * Focused on green OA around the world.


 * Digital Repository Federation in Japan (DRF)
 * Digital Repository Federation (DRF) is a federation consisting of 87 universities and research institutes (as of February 2009), which aims to promote Open Access and Institutional Repository in Japan.
 * DRF is based on one of the research and development projects, managed by Hokkaido University, Chiba University, Kanazawa University, Osaka University and Hiroshima University.


 * DuraSpace
 * Launched May 12, 2009, as a merger of the DSpace Foundation and Fedora Commons.


 * Deutsche Initiative für Netzwerkinformation (DINI)
 * Focused on green OA in Germany.

E

 * Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL)
 * From EIFL. Focused on OA in developing and transition countries.
 * Also see the EIFL-OA programme.
 * Launched in 1999.


 * Elektroniczna BIBlioteka (EBIB)
 * EBIB is a non-profit organisation of Polish librarians working for OA.
 * Launched in 1999.


 * ElibUkr Electronic Library of Ukraine
 * The ELibUkr is a nation-wide linked Electronic Library/Knowledge Centers network.
 * Promotes OA and OA repository development in Ukrainian Universities.
 * Supports ELibUkr-OA - a shared national repository for Ukrainian researchers without institutional repositories.


 * Enabling Open Scholarship (EOS)
 * The EOS Board
 * International
 * Based at the University of Liege.
 * Focused on helping universities adopt OA policies.
 * A membership organization of research institutions.
 * Launched as EurOpenScholar October 2007. Relaunched as Enabling Open Scholarship September 22, 2009.


 * EPrints Community
 * International
 * Open Access Policy-Making Tools and Guidance
 * Focused on institutions hosting OA repositories based on EPrints software.


 * European Heads of Research Councils (EuroHORCs)
 * Recommended OA mandates for member institutions, April 18, 2008.
 * Launched in 1992.


 * European Network for Copyright in support of Education and Science (ENCES)
 * Focused on copyright reforms to facilitate OA (and OER) in Europe.
 * Launched November 13, 2008.


 * European University Association (EUA) Working Group on OA
 * Focused on OA policies for European universities.
 * The OA Working Group was launched on July 10, 2006.


 * Euroscience Science Publishing Working Group
 * Focused on spreading OA policies throughout Europe.
 * The Science Publishing Working Group was launched on January 30, 2005.


 * Expert Advisory Group on Data Access (EAGDA)
 * Established by Wellcome Trust
 * Based in the U.K.
 * Provides "strategic advice on the emerging scientific, legal and ethical issues associated with data access for human genetics research and cohort studies."

F

 * FinnOA
 * The national site for OA in Finland.


 * Force11
 * Focused on transforming scholarly communication, including support for OA.
 * The name stands for "Future of Research Communication and e-Scholarship 2011".
 * Launched in March 2011.


 * Foundation for Open Access Statistics (FOAS)
 * Based in California.
 * Focuses on promoting "free software, open access publishing, and reproducible research in statistics" and supporting The Journal of Statistical Software (JSS)
 * Launched in 2013


 * Foundation for P2P Alternatives
 * Launched November 29, 2005.


 * Free Culture Foundation
 * Chapters based in universities in the United States.
 * Focuses on undoing "the exploitation enabled by private ownership of technology, media, and communication networks".
 * Launched in 2003. Previously known as Students of Free Culture.


 * Free Knowledge Institute
 * Based in Amsterdam.
 * Formerly, Science Education and Learning in Freedom (SELF), re-launched as FKI January 14, 2008.

G

 * Grupo de Pesquisa em Políticas Públicas para o Acesso à Informação (GPOPAI)
 * English name = Research Group on Public Policy for Access to Information.
 * Based at the Universidade de São Paulo.
 * Focused on access to information, culture, and knowledge in Brazil.

H

 * Harvard Open Access Project (HOAP)
 * Based at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
 * Focused on developing effective OA policies at universities and funding agencies (worldwide), and providing accurate and timely information about OA itself.
 * Launched in the fall of 2011.


 * Hungarian Open Repositories (HUNOR)
 * The HUNOR consortium was set up to advance national open access practices in Hungary.
 * Run by the University Library of Debrecen.

I

 * iCommons
 * Based in the UK.
 * Focused on "open education, access to knowledge, free software, open access publishing and free culture communities around the world."
 * Apparently launched in 2006.


 * IFLA Open Access Taskforce
 * From the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA).
 * Focused on OA through the UN, through national governments worldwide, through member institutions, and through partner OA-advocacy organizations.
 * Announced October 11, 2011.


 * IFLA | International Leadership programme project descriptions: Open Access
 * From the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA).


 * INIST-CNRS
 * L'Institut de l'Information Scientifique et Technique du CNRS, France.


 * Informationsplattform Open Access (IPOA)
 * The national site for OA in Germany. In October 2010, it began offering similar coverage for Austria and Switzerland.
 * Launched in September 2006.


 * Instituto Brasileiro de Informação em Ciência e Tecnologia (IBICT)
 * Focused on OA in Brazil.


 * Instituto de Información Científica y Tecnológica (IDICT), Cuba
 * Focused on OA in Cuba, e,g, see Open Access Week 2010.


 * International Council for Open Research and Education (ICORE)
 * Focuses on "promoting Open Research and Open Education as a fundamental social objective".
 * Launched in Rome, May 2013


 * International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP)
 * Based in Oxford.
 * Focused on improving availability in developing countries, including through OA.
 * Launched in 1992, registered as a UK Charity in 2004.


 * Irish Universities Association Open Project Working Group
 * Focused on green OA in Ireland.
 * The Open Project Working Group was launched around June 2007.

J

 * Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)
 * Focused on fostering digital scholarship in the UK, including many projects to foster OA. (We could use some help listing its most important OA-related projects here.)
 * Research Communications Strategy project (RCS)
 * A strategic analysis and advocacy initiative.

K

 * Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
 * Based in Washington, D.C. and Geneva.
 * Focused on "better outcomes, including new solutions, to the management of knowledge resources. KEI is focused on social justice, particularly for the most vulnerable populations, including low-income persons and marginalized groups."
 * Launched in 2006, "assimilating the staff and work program of the Consumer Project on Technology (CPTech), while redefining the mission of the organization."


 * Knowledge Exchange (KE)
 * Based in Copenhagen.
 * Focused on OA in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK.
 * Also see the KE's Open Access Working Group.


 * Kosson, Romania
 * Focused on OA in Romania.
 * Launched May 1, 2007.
 * Also see Open Access Collection.

L

 * Lithuanian Research Library Consortium (LMBA)
 * Focused on OA in Lithuania.


 * La Referencia
 * Focused on green OA in Latin America, with support from IADB is promoting the development of digital respositories national systems en the region. Started in 9 countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, México, Perú, Venezuela.

M

 * Metamorphosis Foundation
 * Based in Skopje, Macedonia.
 * Launched Digital repositories website as an adaptation of the “Digital Repositories” toolkit published by JISC infoNet.
 * Launched in 1999 ("as part of the e-publishing program of the Foundation Open Society Institute – Macedonia"), and became an independent foundation in 2004.


 * Mediterranean Open Access Network (MedOANet)
 * Focused on "coordinating Open Access policies, strategies and structures in six Mediterranean countries: Greece, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Turkey."
 * Launched April 5, 2012.


 * Mediterranean Open Access Network - Useful Links (MedOANet)
 * Focused on "coordinating Open Access policies, strategies and structures in six Mediterranean countries: Greece, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Turkey."
 * The Useful Links page provides links to other organizations throughout the Mediterranean countries and Europe.


 * Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Productiva, Biblioteca Electrónica de Ciencia y Tecnología, Argentina
 * Focused on OA in Argentina and Latin America.

N

 * National Academic Research and Collaborations Information System (NARCIS)
 * Based at the Koninklijke Nederlandse Academie van Wetenschappen (or, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, KNAW) in Amsterdam.
 * Focused on green OA in the Netherlands. Incorporating several earlier programs, including Digital Academic Repositories (DARE) and DAREnet.


 * National Science Library, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
 * Supports Open Access Portal.
 * Runs CAS IR grid.
 * Maintains CAS -OAJ Open access journals of CAS.


 * Network of Collaboration Between Europe and Latin America-Caribbean Countries (NECOBELAC)
 * Based at Rome's Istituto Superiore di Sanità.
 * Focused on access to public-health research, including green and gold OA, in Europe and Latin America.
 * Launched in February 2009.


 * Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD)
 * Focused on ETDs (electronic theses and dissertations), including OA for ETDs.

O

 * OAK Law (Open Access to Knowledge) Law Project
 * Based at Queensland University of Technology.
 * Focused on OA in Australia, especially copyright and licensing issues.
 * Created February 21, 2006, and officially launched November 29-30, 2006.


 * Open Access Network Austria (OANA)
 * The national site for OA in Austria.


 * OpenAccess.be
 * The national site for OA in Belgium.


 * OpenAccess.dk
 * The national site for OA in Denmark.


 * OpenAccess.gr
 * The national site for OA in Greece.


 * OpenAccess.hk
 * The national site for OA in Hong Kong.


 * OpenAccess.is
 * The national site for OA in Iceland.


 * Open Access Italy
 * The national site for OA in Italy.


 * Open Access Korea
 * The national site for OA in Korea.


 * OpenAccess.nl
 * The national site for OA in the Netherlands.


 * OpenAccess.no
 * The national site for OA in Norway.


 * Open Access Peru
 * The national site for OA in Peru.


 * Open Access Slovenia
 * The national site for OA in Slovenia.


 * OpenAccess.se
 * The national site for OA in Sweden.


 * Open Access Archaeology - Open Access Archaeology
 * Focused on OA in the field of Archeology.


 * Open Access Coalition
 * Based in a Google Group
 * Focused on "fighting for the open web."


 * Open Access Communication for Science (OACS)
 * Based at the Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration (HANKEN).
 * Focused on research about the growth and consequences of OA.


 * Open Access Implementation Group (OAIG)
 * The closest thing to a national site for OA in the UK.
 * At launch time, the group had representatives from the University of Edinburgh, the University of Salford, Universities UK, Research Libraries UK, the Society of College, National and University Libraries, JISC, the Research Councils UK, the Wellcome Trust, the Association of Research Managers and Administrators UK, and the Public Library of Science.
 * Launched October 28, 2010.


 * Open Access Network Austria (OANA)
 * Coordination of and recommendations for the Austrian OA-task/ activities of the research institutions, funding organisations and research policies (incl. taking into account international developments; positioning towards the information providers (mainly publishing houses; offering contact persons and source of information for scientists, research institutions and (research-) policies
 * Launched November, 2012.


 * Open Access Scholarly Information Sourcebook (OASIS)
 * Focused on the practical implementation of OA, worldwide.
 * Editorial Team and Advisory Board


 * Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA)
 * Focused on gold OA worldwide.
 * Launched October 14, 2008.


 * Open Access Team for Scotland (OATS)
 * The national site for OA in Scotland.
 * Site last updated in February 2005. Is it defunct?


 * Open Access Toolset Alliance (OATA)
 * A group of individuals and organizations who advocate for an "open source toolset" for OA scholarly publishing and who seek to foster a "culture of exchange."


 * Open Access Working Group (OAWG)
 * Based in Washington, D.C.
 * Focused on OA for publicly-funded research in the US.


 * Open African Innovation Research and Training (Open AIR)
 * Based in institutions throughout Africa, Canada, India and Europe.
 * Focused on investigating "how intellectual property (IP) regimes can be harnessed in Africa to facilitate innovation through collaboration – and to make processes more participatory, knowledge more accessible, and benefits more widely shared".
 * Launched in 2011.


 * Openforum Academy
 * Openforum Academy is a think tank concerned with OA in computing.
 * Openforum Academy was established by Openforum Europe.


 * Open Access Working Group Ukraine
 * A working group of the Association "Informatio-Consortium", Ukraine.


 * Open Book Alliance (OBA)
 * Based in San Francisco. An offshoot of the Open Content Alliance (below).
 * Focused on OA books worldwide.
 * Launched August 26, 2009.


 * Open Content Alliance (OCA)
 * Based in San Francisco. Also see the Open Book Alliance (above) and Open Knowledge Commons (below).
 * Focused on digitizing and providing OA to books, worldwide.
 * Launched October 3, 2005.


 * Open Data Foundation (ODaF)
 * Focused on open data, and open standards for metadata, and open-source software for statistical data.
 * Apparently launched in 2006.


 * Open Education Coalition (OEC), Polannd
 * A group of several non-profit organizations working together to promote openness in Poland.


 * Open Humanities Alliance (OHA)
 * Focused on community-building for the Open Humanities Press.


 * Open Knowledge Commons (OKC)
 * Focused on digitization for OA. A spin-off of the Open Content Alliance (above).
 * Launched September 2008.


 * Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN)
 * Based in Cambridge, England.
 * Working for OA and open data worldwide, especially in the UK.
 * Launched in 2004.
 * Also see the OKFN Open Science Working Group, which has local groups in Cambridge (Massachusetts), Oxford (England), and Stockholm.
 * Also see the Open Knowledge Foundation Blog (OKF hits the Med – Greek group launched!) OKF-hits-the-med-greek-group-launched


 * Open Policy Institute
 * Launched 2012.


 * Open Science Bay Area
 * Based in Mountain View, California.
 * Launched September 23, 2010.


 * Open Science Federation (OSF)
 * Focused on the advance of open access, open data, and open science.
 * Launched in 2010.


 * Open Science in ICM
 * A project of the ICM – Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling, the University of Warsaw, Poland.


 * Open Society Foundations (OSF)
 * Based in New York.
 * Funding OA initiatives, including the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI).


 * Opening Scholarship Project
 * Hosted by the Centre for Educational Technology
 * Funded by the Shuttleworth Foundation
 * Based at the University of Cape Town.


 * Oxford Open Science WIki
 * A Wiki from the OKF that is focused on Oxford and Open Science.
 * Focused on a Working Group formed Science and Oxford Open Science.

P

 * Portale per la Letteratura scientifica Elettronica Italiana su Archivi aperti e Depositi Istituzionali (PLEIADI)
 * Originated from the collaboration between two major Italian university consortia, CASPUR and CILEA, within the framework of the AePIC project.


 * Public Knowledge (PK)
 * Based in Washington, D.C.
 * Focused on user rights in the digital culture, including OA to publicly-funded research in the US.


 * Public Library of Science (PLoS)
 * Based in San Francisco.
 * In addition to publishing OA journals, advocates green and gold OA worldwide.
 * Also see the PLoS advocacy page.


 * Public.Resource.org (PRO)
 * Focused on providing OA to public-domain government information in the US, including the primary sources of US law.
 * Launched in the spring of 2007.

R

 * RECOLECTA, Spain
 * A joint program of REBIUN/FECYT to promote, support and coordinate the development of the Spanish digital repositories infrastructure for open access, dissemination and preservation of Spanish publicly funded research results.


 * Repositories Support Project (RSP)
 * Focused on green OA in the UK. Funded by JISC.


 * Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP)
 * Focused on green OA in Portugal.


 * Research Communications Strategy project (RCS)
 * A JISC funded strategic analysis and advocacy initiative in the UK.


 * Research Data Alliance (RDA)
 * Organized through an international steering group funded by agencies in the US, EU and Australia.
 * Focused on aiming "to accelerate and facilitate research data sharing and exchange".
 * Launched in August 2012


 * Research Group Acceso abierto a la ciencia
 * The Research Group's goal is to become a source of information about Open Access and a forum for discussion and sharing experiences.
 * The portal offers tools for authors, providing information about publishers copyright terms and self-archiving policies (Dulcinea), an updated directory of Spanish Institutional Open Access Repositories (BuscaRepositorios) and an International Directory of institutional OA policies (Melibea).

S

 * Scholarly Communication in Africa Programme (SCA)
 * Based in Cape Town, South Africa.
 * Focusing on Africa in general, and four institutions in particular: the Universities of Botswana, Cape Town, Mauritius, and Namibia.
 * Apparently launched in September 2010.


 * Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC)
 * Based in Washington, D.C.
 * Focused on OA in North America, especially from universities and public funding agencies.
 * A membership organization of North American research libraries.
 * Launched June 1998.
 * Also see SPARC Europe (launched July 2001) and SPARC Japan (launched December 19, 2006).
 * Also see the Alliance for Taxpayer Access (listed above), which is administered by SPARC.
 * Also see SPARC's Campus Open Access Policies (COAP) project, focused on university OA policies in North America (launched August 5, 2009).
 * Also see SPARC's Create Change project.
 * Also see SPARC's Right to Research project and Right to Research Coalition.


 * Science and Development Network (SciDev.net)
 * Based in London.
 * Focused on OA scientific and technological information for developing countries.
 * Launched in 2001.


 * Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO)
 * Based in São Paulo, Brazil.
 * Focused on gold OA in developing countries.
 * Also see SciELO South Africa, launched in 2009.


 * SHERPA Partnership
 * Based at the University of Nottingham. "SHERPA" stands for "Securing a Hybrid Environment for Research Preservation and Access," though the organization is better known by its acronym.
 * A body which has been active in open access research communications since 2002. The partnership now includes over 30 research-led institutions in the UK.
 * Launched in 2002.


 * Southern African Regional Universities' Association (SARUA)
 * Based in Johannesburg.
 * Focused on the interests of universities in Southern Africa, including their interests in OA.
 * In a 2008 report, SARUA recommended that member organizations work for OA.
 * Launched February 20, 2005.


 * Students for Free Culture
 * Focused on advancing free culture, including OA from funding agencies and universities, especially in the US.


 * SURF
 * Based in Amsterdam.
 * SURF is a Dutch higher education and research partnership for information and communication technology. Open Access is one of the programmes.
 * Also see its page on openness.

T

 * The Access Initiative (TAI)
 * Global network that promotes information and research.

U

 * UK Council of Research Repositories (UKCoRR)
 * Focused on green OA in the UK.
 * Launched May 21, 2007.


 * UK Working Group on Open Access
 * This is not the group's official name. The group doesn't seem to have an official name (yet).
 * Focused on OA for academic research in the UK, especially journal articles, conference proceedings and monographs.
 * Announced September 15, 2011 by UK Science Minister David Willetts.

V

 * Verein für freien Wissenszugang
 * Based in Hannover.
 * Focused on free search engines.
 * Re-launched under its current name in 2009.

W

 * Welsh Repository Network (WRN)
 * The Welsh Repository Network is a collaborative venture between the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Wales to establish, develop and populate a network of interoperable institutional repositories.
 * The vision that underpins the network is to facilitate and encourage the sharing of resources across the principality and to maximise the impact of Welsh research across the globe.

Y

 * Yale University Open Data Access (YODA) Project
 * Facilitates "access to patient-level clinical research data" to "ensure that patients and physicians possess all necessary information about a drug or device when making treatment decisions."