The Latin AmericaOpen Access Utopia

Juan Pablo Alperin@juancommander

Simón Bolíviar

Latin America

The unity of our peoples is not the mere illusion of men, but the inexorable decree of destiny.

— Simón Bolívar

Utopia lies at the horizon. When I draw nearer by two steps, it retreats two steps.If I proceed ten steps forward, it swiftly slips ten steps ahead.No matter how far I go, I can never reach it.What, then, is the purpose of utopia? It makes us move forward. —Eduardo Galeano

my message...

Latin American

is our utopia

more open access than anywhere else

over 2000 journals in DOAJprobably over 3500 OA journals in Latindex74% of journals in Scopus are OAestimates as high as 95% of journals being OA

major journal publishing initiatives

Two large publishing portals (SciELO & RedALyC)dozens of university and independent portals/journals

over 2900 journals using OJS, more than any other region

universities like USP and UNAM have Open Access portals with over 100 journals

repositories

dozens of subject digital repositories290 repositories in OpenDOARRegional project to federate repos from 9 countries: LA REFERENCIA

legislation/mandates

national OA laws in Argentina (2013), Peru (2013), Mexico (2014)law introduced/reintroduced in Brazil (2007/2011)~5% of all mandates in ROARMAPit’s own OA declaration (Bahia)

so...

what is utopic about it?

what’s utopic?

it’s regional it’s cooperativeit’s publicly fundedit’s free to read and publishit’s managed by scholars themselves

in short...

In Latin America, scholarly publications are treated as part of a knowledge commons, where the majority of publishing is managed through cooperative and inclusive models by the scholarly community.

see CLACSO’s statement in support of Open Access to knowledge as a commons

why? how? huh?

different financial incentiveshigh costs to printneed for visibility

it’s complicated

it may not be possible toreplicate it

but

it’s a point on the horizon to walk

towards

— Simón Bolívar

Do not compare your material forces with those of the enemy. Spirit cannot be compared with matter. You are human beings, they are beasts.

You are free, they are slaves.

Thank you.