ABEC Brazil and SciELO request the reformulation of the announced plan by CAPES to publicly finance publication of journals of Brazil by a foreign publisher

In light of the complaints put forward during the ABEC Brazil VIII Workshop on Scientific Editing – which took place in Campos de Jordão between November 10-13th and had the participation of more than 300 scientific editors and authors -, the Brazilian Association of Scientific Editors (ABEC Brazil) and the SciELO/FAPESP Program are publicly requesting that the official government body, CAPES, reformulates its proposal announced this past October 29th regarding the financing of the publication of a group of journals of Brazil by a foreign commercial publisher. This request is based on the following considerations:

1. The decision of CAPES to make available significant financial resources to support the internationalization of journals of Brazil is welcome. It is an initiative that dovetails the advances that ABEC Brazil, SciELO, and individual journal publishers have been successfully and sustainably making in recent years.

2. Internationalization, as is currently being implemented by ABEC Brazil and SciELO, involves the adoption and development of national capacities and infrastructures through the management and operating policies and practices in the editing, publication and dissemination of the journals. These actions go beyond those of simply publishing through a foreign commercial publisher which, despite involving higher costs, has not been shown in bibliographical indexes to ensure increased international visibility or impact when compared to journals edited and published nationally, particularly compared to those indexed by SciELO. These high costs are not justified if they are going to be directed to a limited number of journals, keeping in mind that highest quality journals of Brazil are increasingly publishing scientific articles of authors from other countries.

3. The journals of Brazil fulfill a relevant function in communicating more than 25% of the Brazilian research indexed internationally. Meanwhile, in recent years, significant progress has been made in the internationalization of the journals with an increase of publications in English and by foreign authors, while keeping up with the international state of the art in editing, publishing and interoperability on the web. The ability to edit and publish journals is an integral part of the development of the national research infrastructure of the country.

4. The participation of foreign commercial companies, including those publishers selected by CAPES, along with Brazilian commercial publishers and Brazilian publishers from public institutions should be promoted with transparency, competitiveness and equity. It should be done taking into account the interests and priorities of Brazilian research and the progress of scholarly communication in Brazil—as has been happening so far. The proposed intervention of CAPES could undermine this progress and stifle the national capabilities already established and which have a huge potential for growth.

5. The pioneering on-going publication of quality journals in open access through the SciELO program over the past 16 years has contributed to Brazil’s leadership in open access publications. This progress, which is giving journals increased national and international visibility, has been preserving the autonomy in editorial management and should be strengthened by public policies. It is hoped that these principles guide the support of federal and state research agencies.

Based on these considerations, we propose that the resources announced by CAPES to support quality journals of Brazilto be made available to cover publication fees (Article Processing Charges – APC) of articles by authors affiliated with Brazilian institutions and published in quality journals edited in Brazil. This way, funds are goingto be used with transparency by researchers who will favor using these resources in the communication of their researches in the better performing journals of Brazil. These funds from CAPES could be augmented with contributions from other Brazilian research agencies and institutions in a movement designed to establish a national fund that ensures, in a rational way, effective and sustainable financing of open access publication by quality journals of Brazil. ABEC Brazil and SciELO have interest in contributing to this movement and in the development of this national fund. Thus, Brazil would be able to give a pioneer and innovative step forward in open access scholarly communication.

Sigmar de Mello Rode
President, ABEC Brazil

Abel L Packer
Director, SciELO / FAPESP Program

Translated from the original in Portuguese by Nicholas Cop Consulting.