Ana María CettoInstituto de Física, UNAM, and President, LATINDEX

Panel on access to information and knowledgeUNESCO conference Role of ICTs for Persons with Disabilities

New Delhi, India, 26 November 2014

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Open access to online scientific information for all:

A regional perspective

Topics● Introduction: the OA movement

● Free and open access, a tradition in Latin America

● Relevance of OA for our journals

● Making access really inclusive: what does it mean?

● Some strategic steps; what Latindex can do.

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The OA movement

● First major steps:● Budapest 2002 – Bethesda 2003 – Berlin 2003

● What started it: ● Rising costs of scholarly journals

● What sparked it: ● Concerns of academics and librarians

● Pioneers: ● arXiv 1991 – Medline 1997.

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Major regional initiatives

- LATINDEX, comprehensive online information system, 1995 (Ibero America), 'all-inclusive'

- SciELO, virtual journal library, 1996 (Brazil)

- RedALyC, social sciences library, 2003

17000+ journal titles being published today in Ibero America!

www.latindex.org4

Of 5000+ online titles, 94.5 % are freeLatindex, 2013:

PAISACCESO DE REVISTAS EN

LÍNEA TOTALGRATUITO RESTRINGIDO

Argentina 537 12 549Bolivia 16 2 18Brasil 1608 5 1613Chile 333 4 337Colombia 67 8 75Costa Rica 141 6 147Cuba 103 26 129Ecuador 56 3 59Guatemala 10 2 12México 640 126 766Nicaragua 66 0 66Org. Internacionales 16 0 16Panamá 10 1 11Paraguay 14 0 14Perú 43 1 44Puerto Rico 40 15 55República Dominicana 20 0 20Uruguay 95 13 108Venezuela 89 1 90Otros 15 1 16

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Open Access statisticsSource:Wikipedia

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OA articles worldwide(green ans golden routes), Wikipedia 2009

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Relevance of open access

• To seize the benefits of the Open-Access movement:– Policies and actions in support of journals– International visibility

• Using our comparative advantages:– Tradition of free and open access– Common features: language, culture,

problems...– Experience in regional cooperation

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Making Open Access really inclusive:What does it mean?

i) Produce good- quality journals for all needs - - diverse disciplines, languages, authors, readers, ...

ii) Make them visible and searchable - - open-access repositories and virtual libraries

iii) Develop tools to facilitate and increase access.

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Making Open Access really inclusive:What does it mean?

● Which tools?

● What are the needs of our readers/users?

● What is desirable / feasible?

● How to achieve it?

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OA promotion policies http://roarmap.eprints.org/

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Creation of OA repositoriesS. Harnad. ROAR, August 2011

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Some strategic steps● Reliable data and diagnosis; analysis of

specific needs

● Promotion and awareness raising

● Legislation, institutional mandates, normativity

● Participatory development of appropriate tools

● Training and technical support.

IT tools are not the panacaea...But they offer valuable opportunities.

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What Latindex could do" Latindex could become a beacon to spread this understanding (about inclusive open access) to the whole world"

Bhanu Neupane, October 2014

● Raise awareness and identify needs

● Include WC3 compliance as an additional quality criterion for journals and journal repositories

● Work with PKP to include accessibility tools into OJS (Open Journal System) software for journals and platforms

● Training and dissemination.

We are ready to accept the challenge.14

Some basic bibliography

●Acceso abierto a la ciencia, Ernest Abadal, Barcelona, 2012;

●Open Access Overview, Peter Suber, 2013

● A number of dedicated websites and online documents.

www.latindex.org, www.latindex.unam.mx

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