The need and viability of a mediation index in Latin American scientific production and publication

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to introduce the online information system Redalyc as an intermediary tool that provides Latin American scientific articles with international standards (mostly related to natural sciences and developed countries) as well as with specific areas to host local research. Design/methodology/approach -Redalyc is based on a semantic intersection model proposed by Russian semiologist Yuri Lotman. This model allows us to visualize the role played by Redalyc as a mediator between opposites, i.e. local science versus global science, and natural sciences versus social sciences. The paper presents some of the projects Redalyc has developed in conjunction with different countries and different scientific communities. Findings -The paper describes some characteristics that local projects, similar to Redalyc, must have in order to become an intermediary between scientific journal production indexes that link global parameters for scientific communication with local production. The paper finds that efforts should not only be centered on the development of strategies to change certain inertias that distinguish local social scientific production (e.g. dependence on literary resources, lack of recognition of periodical media), but also on the way they could help these disciplines and local media overcome certain barriers, namely: normalization, language and technological handicaps. Originality/value -The recognition of Latin American scientific production implies a dual process that not only involves local policies (scientific councils), but also requires producing reliable databases to provide scientists and journal editors with global references on how to produce visible scientific literature and pertinent knowledge for their contexts. Redalyc is currently a database that contributes in both ways.

Producción científica latinoamericana indexada en Scopus en el área de las ciencias agropecuarias: análisis del período 1996-2016

“…Evolución del número de artículos publicados en el área de la Agricultura y Ciencias Biológicas, y Veterinaria por autores con afiliación de alguna institución de Latinoamérica y el Caribe. Aguado-López et al, 2012;Collazo-Reyes, 2014;Bonilla et al, 2015;Aguado-López et al, 2016). Sin embargo, existe una importante brecha entre los países latinoamericanos.…”

The dream of health information for all

“…Nowadays, without any doubt, the three most visible Latin American efforts to achieve the dream of open access and to catalyze globalized science are the Literatura Latinoamericana y del Caribe en Ciencias de la Salud (LILACS), the Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO), and The RedALyC project ( Red de Revistas Científicas de América Latina y el Caribe, España y Portugal ) 8 – 11 . LILACS is a database created by Biblioteca Regional de Medicina (BIREME) and the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) 11 .…”

“…Since 1982, it had become a crucial resource for the identification of Latin America’s peer-reviewed and "grey" literature on medicine, public health and epidemiology 11 . SciELO was conceived in 1997 as a pilot program to create a virtual library of Brazilian biomedical journals 8 , 9 . This later became an expanding publishing platform for Latin American journals that currently includes 15 countries from Latin America, Europe and Africa 9 .…”

“…This later became an expanding publishing platform for Latin American journals that currently includes 15 countries from Latin America, Europe and Africa 9 . RedALyC, established in 2003, was born out as a need to cover the social sciences and humanities (not initially covered by SciELO) that also widened its original focus to all disciplines 8 . Free-full-text articles in this region have prevailed because most of the journals are not-for-profit enterprises maintained by public academic institutions or scientific societies.…”

“…Free-full-text articles in this region have prevailed because most of the journals are not-for-profit enterprises maintained by public academic institutions or scientific societies. In contrast to the usual ‘article publishing charge’ model of open access, Latin American journals follow a ‘fee-less-free’ model providing immediate free access to the electronic edition of the journals without charging the author’s institution for submission, processing or publication of the article on behalf of medical societies or associations 8 , 9 , 12 . This enables greater visibility for thousands of articles from Latin America 10 .…”