{"id":3885,"date":"2020-04-13T12:15:18","date_gmt":"2020-04-13T15:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.scielo.org\/en\/?p=3885"},"modified":"2020-04-14T14:38:43","modified_gmt":"2020-04-14T17:38:43","slug":"scielo-books-and-open-access-in-epidemic-times-more-important-than-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.scielo.org\/en\/2020\/04\/13\/scielo-books-and-open-access-in-epidemic-times-more-important-than-ever\/","title":{"rendered":"SciELO Books and open access in epidemic times: More important than ever"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Gilberto Hochman<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researcher at Fiocruz, Scientific Editor at Editora Fiocruz and Assistant Editor of Ci\u00eancia & Sa\u00fade Coletiva<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, social midia is\napplauding the franchise of open access to books, book chapters, data and\nencyclopedias in all areas of knowledge by traditional foreign university\npublishers, bases such as JSTOR and Project Muse, and various publishers. The necessary\npolicies of social isolation, and even quarantine, led to the closure of\nresearch institutions, universities, libraries and archives. And, with that, the\ndrastic reduction of knowledge access channels, particularly in countries\noutside the 21st<\/sup> century central circuit of science. The offer is\nworthwhile and should be celebrated and enjoyed. However, this open access has\nan expiration date: the end of the pandemic.1<\/sup> Regardless of its duration, after the\ninternational health emergency, access will again be paid for, either by\nindividuals, educational and research institutions and by government agencies,\nwith a huge burden for the countries of the Global South. Anyone who has tried\nand enjoyed, should pay to continue having access. Open access to scientific\nknowledge is not a routine or a commitment by publishers, but a business and an\nexception like during the pandemic. In that sense, SciELO Books<\/strong> is more important now than ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Created exactly eight years ago in the context of the SciELO Program, SciELO Books had the pioneering participation of Editora Fiocruz, Editora da Unesp <\/em>and Editora da Universidade Federal da Bahia<\/em>. In its origin, there was the urgency to promote and value the academic book produced by Brazilian university publishers. And, also, the understanding that valuing the book was inseverable from an open access policy for communicating scientific knowledge and its internationalization. Inspired by SciELO Journals created in 1998, the book platform was created at a time when books digital formats and their availability in open access were mistrusted. Concerns were shared by authors, readers and even by university publishers. The very economic support of open access to books and journals was, and remains, a challenge. The combination on the same open access platform, with a greater number of books, and commercial access, was the solution found for financing the initiative. A scientific advisory committee was created to guarantee the quality of publishers and books that would be indexed and made available in SciELO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eight years later, the numbers are\nimpressive: 19 publishers, 5 collections, 766 books and 10,380 book chapters in\nopen access and almost 93 million downloads. An unimaginable reach for a\ncountry that has very few bookstores and a large portion of its population with\nreduced buying power. There is no doubt that SciELO Books<\/strong> follows the expansion of the Brazilian university and,\nat the same time, offers free basic educational resources: books. Furthermore,\nit has reached Portugal, Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa, and those interested\nin Brazilian academic output in books on all continents. A not-anticipated result,\nand not necessarily known, is that SciELO\nBooks<\/strong> is part of Brazilian cultural and scientific diplomacy. It grew\ngeographically, allowing scientific and intellectual output rooted in regional\nissues to be known and progressively becomes an open access platform for Latin\nAmerican university books, with the joining of editorial houses from different\ncountries in the region. Another important result is an effort to revalue the\nacademic book as a scientific output based on open access on a platform with\nquality filters.2<\/sup>\nIf it had have historically, and have still today, a prominent place in the\nhumanities, this highlight has been challenged by the great valuation in the\nevaluation processes (individual, institutional and graduate level) of articles\nin scientific journals.3<\/sup>\nThe revaluation of the academic book will also be the urgent valuation of the\nhuman and social sciences. The impacts of the circulation and dissemination of\nacademic books in open access certainly still need to be grasped by specific\nmetrics in education, science and technology and incorporated by funding\nagencies. But the millions of downloads are relevant indicators to start with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SciELO Books,<\/strong> therefore, it is not a passing offer for tasting readers in feverish times. It is not an eventual action in health emergencies. It is an integral part of an open access to knowledge public policy that has been consolidating in Brazil for two decades and that has been changing the ecology of national scientific publication, particularly in the field of journals, but which extends decisively to university books. Responses to health crises are supported by these collections of open knowledge. Ten years ago we were discussing what the future of printed books would be in the increasingly digital world, but composed of unequal societies. SciELO Books<\/strong> has been one of the good and lasting answers: the future of the book is that of accessible and appropriable knowledge by the largest number of readers and progressively aligned with open science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

1. Free Resources on MUSE During COVID-19 [online]. Project Muse. 2020 [viewed in 13 April 2020]. Available from: https:\/\/about.muse.jhu.edu\/resources\/freeresourcescovid19\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. A round table on books was held at the 43rd<\/sup> National Meeting of ANPOCS in October 2019 with the participation of Cynthia Sarti (Unifesp), Michel Misse (UFRJ), Gilberto Hochman (Fiocruz) and Daniela Alves (UFV). Probably the first in decades, vis-\u00e0-vis<\/em> the ongoing discussion on scientific journals in the social sciences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Data extracted from SciELO Journals mostly indicates that social science and humanities journals cited more books and book chapters than journal articles in the last 10 years. I\u2019d like to thank Rogerio Mugnaini and Amanda Ramalho for the information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Free Resources on MUSE During COVID-19 [online]. Project Muse. 2020 [viewed in 13 April 2020]. Available from: https:\/\/about.muse.jhu.edu\/resources\/freeresourcescovid19\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The COVID-19 pandemic has spelled out the decisive role of open access (OA) to knowledge and scientific evidence. Globally, there is a temporary opening of collections of paid-for books and subscription journals to support overcoming the pandemic. SciELO Books permanently indexes, publishes and disseminates a collection of more than 700 books in OA, contributing to support public and professional policies, the expansion of the university, valuing the academic book, and the disciplines that make intensive use of the book. …<\/span> Read More →<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3,75],"tags":[56,18,68,7,9],"class_list":["post-3885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","category-covid-19","tag-ebooks","tag-open-access","tag-open-science","tag-scholarly-communication","tag-scielo-program"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t