The following news item should be of interest. It also demonstrates the
importance of national and regional portals like Scielo, Redalcy and
others for promoting access.
"Thomson Reuters Spotlights Emerging Research Centers with the Addition
of SciELO Database to Web of Knowledge"
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/25/idUS160209+25-Jul-2012+HUG20120725
Bo-Christer Björk
On 10/6/12 8:42 PM, Jean-Claude Guédon wrote:
I would like to point out a recent issue of Educación Superior y
Sociedad that was put together by one of the finest observers of Latin
American science policy, Dra. Hebe Vessuri, that deals with Open Access.
http://ess.iesalc.unesco.org.ve/index.php/ess
The issue includes articles by members of the OJS team, among others.
it also gives an interesting glimpses into the level of discussions on
OA as it evolves in latin America.
One article is in English and Spanish. The rest is only in Spanish.
The Latin American scene is interesting in that it foregrounds an
issue that has not been discussed often in OA circles: while OA helps
promote the visibility of researchers (the "OA advantage") as studied
in the case of repositories), it can also help promote research that
has been placed in a peripheral and invisible position by the present
two-tier system of science communication (inside or outside the web of
science and Scopus, for example).
Quality of research is related only partially to inclusion in these
bibliographic tools and citation trackers, despite some claims to the
contrary. There is quality, a lot of it, outside these citation
trackers. Much research of quality is thus forgotten or neglected. It
is lost science.
Promoting research from regions such as Latin America, but also
Africa, Asia, etc., is another benefit of open access, but it must be
designed in a different and complementary way: research in these
regions should be made sufficiently visible and prestigious as to
prevent it from being safely ignored by labs and researchers in
countries that produce most of the research in the world. Repositories
help insofar as visibility is concerned, but they are not sufficient
because peripheral research, so to speak, lacks branding (not quality,
but rather branding). Journals can provide this, and OA journals do it
best.
This is not a statement against repositories; they too are needed,
very needed. But in peripheral (so-called) regions, the problem is
compounded by a lack of prestige and branding ability. OA journals try
to respond to this need. How best to achieve this is still a matter of
discussions and explorations, but SciELO and RedALyC are attempts
aiming straight at these problems.
I cannot refrain concluding with a statement from an African novelist
who, while dealing with literature, says things that can be easily
transposed in the area of knowledge and science: "/As for now, caught
between condescendance and generous curiosity, African literatures
find it difficult to insert their mediocrity inside the others'
mediocrity, and their magnificence inside the others' magnificence.
They are condemned to living among each other."/ Sami Tchak, Désir
d'Afrique (Paris, Gallimard, 2002), p. 312. Thanks to Alice Le Filleul
who, unwittingly, attracted my attention to this splendid analysis. My
own translation.
Good reading.
Jean-Claude Guédon
PS I have not read and checked every last article of this collection
as I became aware of it recently, so that I cannot be sure that I
agree with all the content. But I am sure the content is relevant to
OA advocates and can help shape their strategic thinking in this
particular arena.
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