Brazil and Spain have a commanding profile in academic output in their respective regions, and possess great potential in the field of scholarly publishing. Notwithstanding the differences in the history of scientific development between the two countries, both have a similar number of journals in the Web of Science database and have developed successful open access models. This article highlights a study carried out by researchers from those two countries and gives an outline of these programs and the reasons behind their success. … Read More →
Experts give their opinion on Elsevier’s assault
In reaction to the DMCA requests sent out by Elsevier in December of last year to prevent articles which had been published in its journals from being made available on Web sites, the principal leaders in Open Access made their voices clearly heard. Among them were Steven Harnad, Charles Oppenheim and Richard Poynder where, in Poynder’s famous blog Open & Shut, they explain the different options that exist for an author to publish in repositories using the so called “Harnad-Oppenheim” solution. … Read More →
Publishing giants fight back – Elsevier goes author hunting
Last December Elsevier sent out thousands of e-mails to repositories of articles from scientific publications featuring open access articles that had been published in Elsevier journals, requesting that those articles be removed, by invoking the protection given to copyright holders granted by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). This raised an alarm in the academic community because it could be the start of similar actions by other commercial publishers. Voices have been raised in defense of the rights of authors, but sooner or later the researchers must decide whether the traditional publishing model is the one that best suits their interests. … Read More →
Scientific Data: Nature Publishing Group moves the communication of scientific data forward with its new online open access publication
The description and communication of research data is an integral part of the opening up of science and one which eScience adheres to; it is one of the specific SciELO action lines. Amongst the many initiatives which are in progress, it is the announcement made by Nature Publishing Group concerning the launch of the publication entitled Scientific Data which stands out. This publication is geared towards communicating the descriptions of scientific data files. … Read More →
Open-Data: liquid information, democracy, innovation… the times they are a-changin’
Open data are changing teaching, research and decision making. The Open Government registry registers more than 385 catalogs in 40 countries which offer more than one million open data-sets. Open data joins Open Access, Open Source and Creative Commons in a process of global change. A recent report from the McKinsey Global Institute concludes that the availability of Open data could increase trillions of dollars in economic value annually. … Read More →
Interview with Cameron Neylon
The Open Access advocate, Cameron Neylon, speaks about the role of PLoS journals on the dissemination of best quality articles, through a business model that transfers from readers to authors the responsibility for the payment of editorial costs. … Read More →
Interview with Mark Patterson
Mark Patterson, the keynote speaker of SciELO 15 Years Conference, describes how eLife is consolidating the idea that science communication is an integral part – one of the most important – of academic research through open access publication of outstanding content selected by a select group of researchers. The researcher will also talk about the recent controversial article on open access published by Science. Patterson attributes to SciELO the growing visibility and quality of Latin America journals. … Read More →
October: Open Access Celebration Month!
In October we celebrate 15 years of the SciELO! October is known as the month of open access. Worldwide have celebratory events! Let’s celebrate! … Read More →
The Evolution of Open Access: a brief history
Meet some key events in the evolution of Open Access, which already has a history that goes back over 30 years. … Read More →
Interview with José Adolfo Rodríguez Gallardo
UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México – National Autonomous University of Mexico), which figures prominently in the academic ouptut of Latin America, and CONACYT – National Council of Science and Technology, have created a working group to improve Mexico’s academic publications. UNAM coordinates SciELO Mexico and for the past 30 years has been producing the CLASE, PERIODICA and Latindex databases which cover all areas of knowledge. As of 2006, it is promoting Open Access journals and repositories. … Read More →
How much does it cost to publish in Open Access?
Open Access (OA) publication has become the accepted way of providing society with an idea of the public funds used to finance research. Open Access publication does not have a zero cost attached to it. It is however, put forward as a more economical model than journals which are financed by subscriptions. This post analyzes the financing of OA publication and puts forward business models which are seen as sustainable. … Read More →
UNESCO Guidelines provide a detailed review of Open Access
UNESCO has recently published the UNESCO Policy guidelines for the development and promotion of open access, whose objective is to promote Open Access in its Member States. The Guidelines contribute to the understanding of the most important aspects of Open Access so that countries and their institutions may choose appropriate policies and link them to their national research systems. … Read More →
Interview with Cicilia K. Peruzzo
With 50 years since the creation of the academic discipline of Communication Science in Brazil, what assessment can be made today of the successes and challenges of the field? Currently there are 64 graduate course in the country, while there were 6 in the 80‘s.The journal Intercom, the first academic journal in Communication in Brazil to be made available in open access, is an exciting editorial project that corresponds to an important part of this process of the development of the field. … Read More →
Open access articles are here to stay: in less than 10 years nearly 50% of articles worldwide can be accessed this way
Publication sponsored by the European Commission, which highlights the role of SciELO in Brazil and the southern hemisphere, estimates that 50% of scholarly articles in the world are available in open access. Researchers like Stevan Harnad calculate this rate by 32%. Methodological differences explain the discrepancy, but the results achieved in a decade show no reversal on this trend. … Read More →
Interview with Indrajit Banerjee, Director of the UNESCO Information Society Division
To achieve the goal of open and inclusive knowledge societies, different approaches and strategies were adopted by UNESCO. In this interview, Indrajit Banerjee highlights that SciELO’s decentralized cooperative platform provides the context for a country to take charge of the process of Open Access publishing. … Read More →
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