For those interested in sharing the message that Kathleen Shearer shared
with this list earlier this morning ("Open Access in Latin America: A
paragon for the rest of the world"), you can find the statement published
on The Winnower <http://thewinnower.com> at the following URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.15200/winn.143982.27959Thanks. juan On Mon, Aug 17, 2015 at 12:19 AM, Kathleen Shearer < m.kathleen.shea...@gmail.com> wrote: > Open Access in Latin America: A paragon for the rest of the world > > August 17, 2015 > > Latin America is one of the world’s most progressive regions in terms of > open access and adoption of sustainable, cooperative models for > disseminating research; models that ensure that researchers and citizens > have access to the results of research conducted in their region. > > SciELO is a remarkable decentralized publishing platform harboring over > 1,200 peer-reviewed journals from fifteen countries located in four > continents - South America. Central-North America, Europe and Africa. > Redalyc, based in Mexico, is another extraordinary system hosting almost > 1,000 journals from fourteen Latin American countries plus Spain and > Portugal. Governments around the world spend billions of dollars on > infrastructure to support research excellence; platforms such as SciELO and > Redalyc are extensions of this much larger investments in research. They > reflect an enlightened understanding in Latin America that the wide > dissemination of and access to research results is as important as the > research itself. The rest of the world would do well to take note. > > In a recent blog post, these two initiatives were discredited by Jeffrey > Beall. In the post, Beall compared the two publishing platforms to favelas, > resulting in a mean-spirited insult to both favela dwellers on the one > hand, and SciELO and Redalyc on the other. Rather than maligning these > initiatives, they should be held up as examples of best practice for the > rest of the world. > > Furthermore, just because some in North America do not know about SciELO > and Redalyc does not render them irrelevant. This is an extremely elitist > and narrow view of the world. Although these platforms may not be well > known in some places, SciELO and Redalyc do raise the visibility and > accessibility of the journals they host, particularly with their local > communities. If these journals were published by the big commercial > publishers, the vast majority of researchers in Latin America would simply > not have access to the articles in those journals. What value is > visibility, if people cannot access the articles? > > One of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which were > finalized on August 1, 2015, is to “Build resilient infrastructure, promote > inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation”. Both > Scielo and Redalyc are excellent exemplars of this type of infrastructure. > These types of networked meta-publishers allow for central governance of > policies, procedures and controls, but are intentionally decentralized to > support the development of local capacity and infrastructure ensuring > greater sustainability and alignment with local policies and priorities. > What Beall advocates for, namely to let powerful foreign players come in > and take over local capacity building, is exactly the opposite of what > sustainable development is about. > > For these reasons, we believe that SciELO and Redalyc are very nice > neighbourhoods indeed! > > Signed by, > > Juan Pablo Alperin, Public Knowledge Project and Simon Fraser University, > Canada > Dominique Babini, CLACSO, Argentina > Leslie Chan, University of Toronto Scarborough, Canada > Eve Gray, University of Cape Town, South Africa > Jean-Claude Guédon, University of Montréal, Canada > Heather Joseph, SPARC, United States > Eloy Rodrigues, University of Minho, Portugal > Kathleen Shearer, COAR, Canada/Germany > Hebe Vessuri, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico and Instituto > Patagónico de Ciencias Sociales y Humanas, Argentina > > >
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