Category Archives: oa.latin_america

New project: Open science cloud infrastructure and training for communities in Latin America and Africa

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“We are excited to share that the grant proposal that the IOI team contributed to, titled “A Collaborative Interactive Computing Service Model for Global Communities”, has been awarded funding by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative….

The goal of this proposal is to create a collaborative cloud infrastructure service that enables community-based cloud-native workflows in the biosciences. Together with our collaborators, we will promote values of open and inclusive community practices, infrastructure that enables these practices, and a “train-the-trainers” approach that empowers community leaders to share expertise in cloud infrastructure with others in their communities. Our focus will be on communities in Latin America and Africa, and we hope to learn how this model could be extended to other global communities that are historically marginalized from large-scale scientific infrastructure projects….”

Sociolinguistic repositories as asset: challenges and difficulties in Brazil | Emerald Insight

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Abstract:  Purpose

This paper aims to provide a context for Brazilian Portuguese language documentation and its data collection to establish linguistic repositories from a sociolinguistic overview.

Design/methodology/approach

The main sociolinguistic projects that have generated collections of Brazilian Portuguese language data are presented.

Findings

The comparison with another situation of repositories (seed vaults) and with the accounting concept of assets is evocated to map the challenges to be overcome in proposing a standardized and professional language repository to host the collections of linguistic data arising from the reported projects and others, in the accordance with the principles of the open science movement.

Originality/value

Thinking about the sustainability of projects to build linguistic documentation repositories, partnerships with the information technology area, or even with private companies, could minimize problems of obsolescence and safeguarding of data, by promoting the circulation and automation of analysis through natural language processing algorithms. These planning actions may help to promote the longevity of the linguistic documentation repositories of Brazilian sociolinguistic research.

Indicators of research quality, quantity, openness and responsibility in institutional review, promotion and tenure policies across seven countries

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The need to reform research assessment processes related to career advancement at research institutions has become increasingly recognised in recent years, especially to better foster open and responsible research practices. Current assessment criteria are believed to focus too heavily on inappropriate criteria related to productivity and quantity as opposed to quality, collaborative open research practices, and the socio-economic impact of research. Evidence of the extent of these issues is urgently needed to inform actions for reform, however. We analyse current practices as revealed by documentation on institutional review, promotion and tenure processes in seven countries (Austria, Brazil, Germany, India, Portugal, United Kingdom and United States of America). Through systematic coding and analysis of 143 RPT policy documents from 107 institutions for the prevalence of 17 criteria (including those related to qualitative or quantitative assessment of research, service to the institution or profession, and open and responsible research practices), we compare assessment practices across a range of international institutions to significantly broaden this evidence-base. Although prevalence of indicators varies considerably between countries, overall we find that currently open and responsible research practices are minimally rewarded and problematic practices of quantification continue to dominate.

PLOSAnnounces Publishing Agreement With the Largest Research Institution in Mexico

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(UNAM) and the Public Library of Science (PLOS) today announced a one-year agreement, brokered by Accucoms (PLOS’ regional representative),that will allow UNAM researchers to publish in PLOS ONE and other select PLOS journals[1] without incurring article processing charges (APC). Flat fee agreements and PLOS’ other models shift publishing costs from authors to research institutions based on prior publishing history and anticipated future growth with PLOS. The agreement with UNAM starts on January 1, 2023.

 

CODAM Ecuador 2022 | Congress on Open Data and Metadata in Ecuador | Oct 26-28, 2022

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“The II Congress on Open Data and Metadata in Ecuador, Open Research Data Edition, CODAM 2022, is promoted by Datalat Foundation and the Ecuadorian Network of Open Data and Metadata (REDAM). The Congress aims to promote a space for dialogue between the Government, universities, civil society and private companies on the importance of open data and metadata, as well as the recent advances in the matter at the public policy level….”

Alperin (2022) Why I think ending article-processing charges will save open access | Nature

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When the Public Library of Science, a non-profit organization based in San -Francisco, California, and other publishers popularized article-processing charges (APCs) in the mid-2000s, scholarly publishing in Latin America was already embracing open access (OA) using a different model: instead of charging authors, academic institutions published journals edited by faculty members. The approach is a type of ‘diamond OA’, which works without fees for readers or authors.

Over the same time period, APCs have become ubiquitous in the global north, embraced by for-profit journals and encouraged by many leading European and US funders. The vibrant publishing ecosystem in Latin America (and elsewhere in the global south) will not be left unscathed.

I know this ecosystem is vibrant and diverse because I’ve spent 15 years working at the Public Knowledge Project (PKP) — based at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada — and I am now co-scientific director of this initiative to make research publicly available. I have met hundreds of journal editors who work hard, often in challenging conditions, to bring the knowledge discovered by their communities to the rest of the world. An incredibly diverse set of journals now uses Open Journal Systems, free software developed by PKP, to manage, publish and index their work (S. Khanna et al. Preprint at SciELO preprints https://doi.org/jgbz; 2022). My and my colleagues’ work shows that many non-academics frequently access this content. Many titles focus on locally relevant issues, such as rural development, local histories and Indigenous cultures. There are, of course, journals of broad global interest as well.

 

Yet many Latin American scholars still seek to publish in well-funded journals in Europe and North America, which are seen as more prestigious and get more international attention. And many research-evaluation systems favour journals indexed in databases such as Scopus and Web of Science, which contain a tiny fraction of the journals found in the global south. As more journals charge APCs, more Latin American institutions are pressured to pay them.

In Colombia alone, APC payments are estimated to have grown by 18-fold since 2019. The amount is expected to increase after some five dozen institutions signed Latin America’s first ‘transformative agreement’ (a contract to pay APCs to subscription-based journals that are changing business models) late last year. At least 120 journals in Latin America have begun charging APCs in the past 5 years, although this model inherently links publication to authors’ (or their funders’ or institutions’) ability to pay.

[…]

 

IOP Publishing expands open access offer to Latin America through unlimited transformative agreement  – IOP Publishing

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“IOP Publishing (IOPP) has reached an unlimited transformative agreement with the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) allowing affiliated researchers to publish their work open access (OA) at no cost to them. The fees for publishing their work openly will be covered centrally by UNAM, a public research university ranked as one of the best and biggest universities in Latin America….”

Open Science, equity and the Brazilian context

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“Open Science, a global movement created by the scientific community, has undertaken efforts aimed at increasing the popularity of scientific knowledge production and making the results of scientific research widely accessible to society. Open Science principles, which aim to make research outcomes freely available through scientific journals or open access repositories, and to promote transparency to their processes, replication and reproducibility, have generally been well received by the scientific community. Its transparent, accessible and collaborative nature is widely recognized, but discussion of potentially reckless aspects for implementation, such as the costs of participation and the need for a favorable policy agenda, are also in focus.1

 

As this “umbrella of strategies” spreads, some questions become more frequent: how can we promote equity from such an inequitable basis, after all? The venue for the “open science party” has been set, but the capacity of the guests to take part in it has not been the same. Surveys show that the article processing charges (APCs), charged by international open access journals have increased sharply and constituted a barrier to the visibility of scientific production of researchers globally.2,3 Thus, the Brazilian scientific community is among those agents whose capacity to participate is compromised by budget constraints for research and the lack of resources directed to publication fees by funding agencies in Brazil.

 

Science has been deeply marked by advances and setbacks, in Brazil. Even in the early 2000s, the structural working conditions, regional imbalances, funding options and conflicts between the public and private sectors were already seen as challenges.4 The situation has not changed much and, despite an upward trend in federal government spending on science and technology, from 2003 to 2015, this trend was reversed as of 2016, reaching levels below the investments in 2009 by 2020.5 This funding setback has imposed heavy burdens on the entire scientific community, reflected in difficulties to maintain institutions and projects, and consequent expansion of barriers, making Brazilian researchers even more distant from the effective implementation of Open Science….”

Declaración de CLACSO “Una nueva evaluación académica y científica para una ciencia con relevancia social en América Latina y el Caribe» | Universo Abierto

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From Google’s English:  “This declaration was approved by the XXVII General Assembly of CLACSO, within the framework of the  9th Latin American and Caribbean Conference on Social Sciences , in Mexico City in June 2022. In turn, it was enriched with the contributions of various regional and international specialists and representatives of CLACSO member centers, who participated in the plenary “Balance, perspectives and challenges for a new agenda for academic evaluation in Latin America and the Caribbean” at the International Seminar of the  Forum Latin American Scientific Evaluation (FOLEC)- CLACSO  during the 9th. Conference.

In this way, CLACSO-FOLEC, together with a multiplicity of actors and actors committed to the issue, has managed to consolidate a common Declaration of Principles and high consensus on responsible academic evaluation from and for Latin America and the Caribbean. Following these guidelines, CLACSO-FOLEC seeks to promote the implementation of these principles – converted into proposals and tools for action – by the National Science and Technology Organizations, scientific institutions and higher education in the region. Likewise, it mobilizes the study and survey of good practices and different innovations in the evaluation processes,     

We would very much like your individual and/or institutional support for the Declaration. For that, you can offer your adhesion in the link.”

Arcadia supports Redalyc and AmeliCA in its endeavor to advance diamond Open Access

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“The Autonomous University of the State of Mexico (UAEM) awarded $3.6 Million grant from Arcadia – a charitable of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin – for Redalyc and AmeliCA. The project’s purpose is to reinforce, expand and strengthen the current efforts of this initiatives so to advance diamond Open Access within a framework of science as a global public good through the consolidation of an Open Infrastructure for capacity building, visibility, discoverability, quality assurance, technological development and sustainability of diamond OA publishing that yields more equitable and inclusive participation in the communication of science.”

 

Breve cronologia da Ciência Aberta no Brasil – Vida acadêmica – modo de usar

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From Google’s English:  “This brief chronology will map the history of discussions and initiatives on Open Science in Brazil (and some highly relevant international initiatives that put pressure on Brazilian actors, such as the UNESCO resolution). Until 2020 it includes academic works (such as articles, editorials and theses and dissertations – especially those related to the so-called Applied Human and Social Sciences), but even in these cases it will not contain all the production on the subject in the period . Thus, this survey is not intended to be a definitive ‘guide’ on the subject, but to present a glimpse into how the movement has unfolded, with special emphasis on the impacts on the publishing system and on doing science….”

Open access books: A global preference for regional subjects | Impact of Social Sciences

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For many research disciplines English functions as the global language for research. But, how far does this align with patterns of research use globally? Drawing on download evidence from the OAPEN library of open access books, Ronald Snijder explores this global demand for open research and finds significant demand for regional research and research published in languages other than English.

Evaluación académica en tiempos de ciencia abierta, inclusiva y relevante: desafíos culturales, cognitivos y político-institucionales para la producción, circulación e indización del conocimiento en América Latina y el Caribe.

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From Google’s English:  “The Latin American Forum on Scientific Evaluation (FOLEC-CLACSO) is a space for debate on the meanings, policies and practices of the evaluation processes of scientific work in the region. From an open, collaborative and public knowledge domain perspective, it seeks to strengthen democratizing and sustainable approaches and models of science, committed to the problems of our societies.

The formal start of this initiative was in November 2019 in Mexico City, after the First Latin American Seminar on Scientific Evaluation, co-organized between CLACSO and the National Council for Science and Technology (CONACYT, Mexico). The event brought together experts from the region, representatives of National Science and Technology Organizations and CLACSO Member Centers to analyze the evaluation processes of scientific work and generate proposals from Latin America and the Caribbean, in dialogue with the trends and good international practices.

In 2020, the FOLEC-CLACSO developed a diagnostic stage, proposals and guiding principles in relation to the processes and meanings of academic evaluation reform in the region, embodied in different working documents, meetings and activities. In 2021, a Second Latin American Forum for Scientific Evaluation (FOLEC) took place, co-organized between CLACSO and the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET, Argentina), within the framework of the III Latin American and Caribbean Open Science Forum, CILAC 2020-2021, in dialogue with the Agenda for Sustainable Development 2030.

Throughout 2021, FOLEC-CLACSO developed a set of evaluative policy tools and research that have nurtured reflection on the subject from a perspective located in Latin America and the Caribbean and that favors the approach of social sciences. For its multiple actions, FOLEC.CLACSO was recognized among the 15 international promoters and definers of responsible research evaluation and the 10 best websites and resources on the subject, according to the Global Research Council (GRC) report. Since 2022, he has been a member of the Executive Board of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA). Currently, the FOLEC-CLACSO agenda has managed to lead and consolidate the exchange and sustained work,

On the stage of the 9th Latin American and Caribbean Conference on Social Sciences, CLACSO again in alliance with CONACyT of Mexico, co-organizes a Third Latin American Forum on Scientific Evaluation and invites multi-stakeholders from the government sector, the university and scientific community, and civil society, in order to agree on a Declaration of Regional Principles on Academic Assessment, discuss and promote assessment policy instruments, and advance towards exchanges and consensus that commit the scientific systems of the different countries….”

COOPERATION AGREEMENT AMONG REDCLARA/LA REFERENCIA AND REDALYC

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“The aim of this cooperation is to:

Promote metadata interoperability between Diamond Open Access and Green Open Access in general, and between the regional platforms Redalyc and LA Referencia in particular, with the objective of maximizing the open access visibility of regional scientific and technical output.

Facilitate the availability of scientific output published in Diamond Open Access scientific journals in institutional repositories, national nodes and LA Referencia, as well as in evaluation systems and CRIS platforms.
Collaborate in the development of open software that improves the quality of metadata, compliance with international guidelines, preservation and retrieval of research products, with the clear objective of generating regional public goods that support the implementation of national and regional Open Science policies.
Generate and participate in discussion and exchange spaces with other initiatives in the region to jointly contribute to the design of new metrics and research evaluation mechanisms based on Open Science inputs, products and processes. …”