By Julio Zetter Patiño
Main Points of the SciELO Network Meeting
The SciELO Program celebrated its 25th year of regular operation during the week of September 25-29, 2023, which was divided into two parts: the SciELO Network Meeting and the SciELO 25 Years International Conference.
Held every five years, the meeting reported and analyzed the progress of the 16 national collections of the SciELO Network, the methodological and technological updates of the SciELO Publishing Model, as well as the presentation and approval of the final version of the Priority Lines of Action for the next five years (2024-2028) with a focus on aligning journals, collections, and the SciELO Program with open science practices, discussed prior to the meeting.
The Priority Lines of Action 2024-2028 that have been agreed upon and which have an impact on the network are:
1. Improving the governance of the SciELO Network as an open research communication infrastructure, enabling more active participation by the national collections that make it up.
2. Publication of the Guidelines for the use of Artificial Intelligence tools and resources in research communication in the SciELO Network, which establishes standards and practices to be applied to authors, editors, and referees regarding the use of AI tools and resources in research communication in the SciELO Network collections.
3. Improving the technological platform. Operational and aesthetic modernization of the national collections’ websites.
4. Form a united front on behalf of the entire network to express discomfort with external initiatives that promote the division of open access in Latin America.
5. Establishment of the Office of Ethics and Good Practices in Scholarly Communication (SciELO Ethics).
6. Statement on the use of Contributions to the Cost of Publishing (CCP) in the SciELO Network. Contributions to the Cost of Publishing (CCPs) are financial contributions that help cover the full or partial costs of publishing open access research under the CC-BY license. CCPs will replace the use of high article processing charges (APCs) generally charged by commercial publishers and scientific societies.
Finally, the Declaration in Support of Open Science with IDEIA – Impact, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility has been published, promoting the following topics:
- Developing better access to scientific knowledge is essential for our collective future, not only to advance knowledge, but also to improve public policies and education, combat disinformation, protect our planet and create a basis from which research can contribute more actively to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). UNESCO’s Open Science Recommendation, adopted by the governments of 193 countries in 2021, established an important international framework for Open Science policy and practice.
- Open science programs, such as SciELO, protect and promote diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility in both research and society.
- The sustainable, resilient, and pioneering work of the SciELO Network is an important scientific achievement for our countries and a valuable and globally recognized contribution to the progress of global Open Access to scientific knowledge in its various forms.
Points of interest addressed at the SciELO 25 Years Conference:
Participation of national and international scientific personalities, who widely recognized the trajectory and contributions of the SciELO program to promote the development and consolidation of Latin American science. Some of the representatives of initiatives, associations, agencies, universities, publishers, foundations, infrastructures, and councils who were present were:
Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ); Unit of Open Science and Research Infrastructures of the European Commission; United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); cOAlition S; LA Referencia; Crossref; Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET); SCImago Lab; Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC); ASAPbio; Research Data Alliance (RDA); Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association (OASPA); Public Knowledge Project (PKP); Associação Brasileira de Editores Científicos (ABEC Brasil); Agência Bori; Instituto Brasileiro de Informação em Ciência e Tecnologia – Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação (Ibict-MCTI); Associação Brasileira de Editoras Universitárias (ABEU); Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf); Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portugal); Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP); Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq); Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES); Espacio Iberoamericano del Conocimiento en la Secretaría General Iberoamericana (SEGIB); Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information (BIREME/PAHO/WHO); Committee on Data (CODATA); and GO FAIR Foundation.
Brazil’s scientific authorities
The initiatives that financially support the SciELO Network are FAPESP, CAPES, CNPq and FAPUnifesp.
National and international authorities have generally strongly supported the following topics that Latin American scientific systems should aim for:
- Incorporating the use, deposit, curation, and preservation of open data.
- Incorporating preprints into the publication flow of scientific research.
- Strengthening controls and promoting transparency in the management of production within the global scientific sector.
- Promoting closer links between the scientific community and the public to solve immediate social problems.
- Promoting the use of languages that take into account the important cultural diversity present in the scientific ecosystem at all levels.
- Promoting a change in scientific evaluation systems that better adapts to the practical approach of Open Science, combining and improving the contextualization of using both quantitative metrics and qualitative analyses.
Some additional points of interest were mentioned during the event:
The Latin American publishing system has been recognized as one of the most sustainable and inclusive in the world, which is embodied in the definition of “diamond open access”.
Transformative Agreements, as well as transitional ones, must be globally equitable and offer full price transparency.
The retention of copyright by the collaborators (authors) who produce the research should be encouraged.
Goals towards the future
SciELO is positioned as one of the most important programs worldwide due to its ability to define clear and achievable goals to which Latin American science can adhere. On its 25th Anniversary, various stakeholders met and outlined several key points for the advancement of Open Science in Latin America. These included strengthening the governance of the SciELO Network and aligning it with open science practices, the use of Artificial Intelligence tools and resources in research communication and the creation of an Office of Ethics and Good Practices in Scholarly Communication. Moreover, access to scientific knowledge was promoted to combat disinformation and align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. During the SciELO 25 Years Conference, representatives of various national and international organizations supported SciELO’s trajectory and emphasized the need to strengthen transparency, open data management and the link between the scientific community and society. In short, SciELO continues to be a beacon for open science in Latin America, promoting key initiatives for its development and consolidation.
Full executive summary in PDF (Spanish only)
External links
Declaration in Support of Open Science with IDEIA: https://25.scielo.org/en/ideia-declaration/
Declaración sobre el uso de Contribuciones al Costeo de Publicaciones (CCPs) en la Red SciELO: https://25.scielo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/4-Marilin-Declaracion-sobre-el-uso-de-Contribuciones-al-Costeo-de-Publicaciones-CCPs-en-la-Red-SciELO_es.pdf
Oficina de Ética y Buenas Prácticas en la Comunicación de la Investigación (SciELO Ética): https://25.scielo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/3-Edmundo-Establecimiento-de-la-Oficina-de-Etica-y-Buenas-Practicas.pdf
SciELO 25 Years – Open Science with IDEIA: https://25.scielo.org/en/
SciELO Network – Priority lines of action for professionalization, internationalization, and sustainability – 2024-2028: https://wp.scielo.org/wp-content/uploads/Priority_lines.pdf
Translated from the original in Spanish by Lilian Nassi-Calò.
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