SPARC applies the following policies when accepting sponsorships for OpenCon from corporations and other organizations:

1. Each sponsorship, whether providing a cash or in-kind contribution, must be approved by SPARCʼs Executive Director. The terms and conditions of each sponsorship must be set forth in a written agreement executed by an authorized representative from the New Venture Fund (SPARC’s fiscal sponsorship organization) and by a corporate officer of the sponsoring organization.
2. Each sponsorship must conform to SPARCʼs sponsorship acceptability tests and recognition guidelines. SPARCʼs recognition guidelines (see below) will be incorporated as an appendix to each sponsorship agreement.
3. All sponsorships will be handled separately from event planning and/or program content creation. Sponsors will have no control over event, program, or content decisions or sponsorship policies. Specifically
   • a) Sponsors will not be given advance knowledge of an eventʼs speakers, panel topics, or specific program content beyond what has already been publicly announced. Sponsors may be given advance knowledge of general program themes.
   • b) Sponsors will have no control over the specific placement and/or timing of sponsor recognition statements, either online or in print.
4. Access to all OpenCon mailing lists will be controlled by SPARC, with any mailings handled by SPARC itself. Email lists will not be provided directly to sponsors or to any other organizations. Sponsorship agreements will adhere to all other conditions of SPARCʼs information privacy and use terms.
5. Any sponsorship programs that utilize SPARC event or program content will conform to the SPARC speaker agreement.
6. Neither SPARC nor OpenCon officially endorse the products or services of corporations and other third parties. Therefore, the SPARC and OpenCon names and/or marks cannot be used in association with a sponsorʼs product or service so as to imply SPARCʼs or OpenCon’s endorsement.
7. OpenCon will not accept sponsorships from the following types of organizations, unless officially approved by the OpenCon Organizing Committee:
   • a) Journal publishers that are not members of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (oaspa.org).
   • b) Journal publishers who require readers to pay a fee for accessing peer-reviewed content.
   • c) Journal publishers that use a default license that is more restrictive than a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.
   • d) Publishers of educational materials that use a default license that is more restrictive than a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerical-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA) license or a license that does not grant advance permission to create and share derivative works.
   • e) Open Data providers who do not align with the ethos of the Panton Principles, as determined by the OpenCon Organizing Committee.
   • f) Companies or organizations that publicly or privately advocate messages or missions inimical to the interests of OpenCon, SPARC, its mission, or its members.
   • g) Partisan political, lobbying, advocacy, and/or cause organizations beyond those supportive of SPARCʼs mission and approved by SPARCʼs Executive Director.
   • h) Companies that manufacture, sell, or promote products irrelevant to SPARCʼs mission or activities, with such relevance to be determined solely by SPARC.
8. Business units of larger corporations may be considered for sponsorship separate from their parent company; however, the sponsoring entity must not violate any requirements set out in section 7, as determined by the OpenCon Organizing Committee.
9. All promotional materials and messages provided by sponsors in conjunction with OpenCon must not mention or promote products, services, or organizations that violate the requirements set out in section 7. SPARC reserves the right to approve materials and messages provided by sponsors in conjunction with OpenCon.
10. As part of each agreement, SPARC will reserve the right to prior review and approval for any sponsor materials, regardless of medium, that incorporate the OpenCon name and/or marks.
11. SPARC retains the right to cancel any sponsorship at any time. In the event of cancellation, sponsors may be eligible to receive a refund of their sponsorship fee, prorated to reflect any sponsorship benefits already delivered.

Updated May 4, 2015