Keynote Arianna Becerril García (Autonomous University of the State of Mexico) "Non-commercial Open Access to science, the closest approach toward sustainable and participatory scholarly communications" | 16 Sept 2020 @ OAT - Open-Access-Tage 2020

Abstract: Some lessons should be learnt from the prevailing scholarly communication system which has showed little success in enabling science as a global, participatory and equitable conversation. The Open Access spirit appeared to help but it has not been enough. Instead, ravenous strategies from commercial publishers are transforming reading paywalls into author paywalls. A new exclusionary landscape is emerging.

The Latin-American region has demonstrated that a science as commons approach is not only feasible but effective in terms of sustainability and inclusivity. It is possible to run journal publishing on a not-for-profit basis and in hands of the academic sector, naturally open to readers and free of APCs. In a cooperative approach where everyone gets benefit from everyone’s investment. A distribution of costs among many stakeholders, including universities, academic institutions, governments, national science agencies, hospitals and funders.

AmeliCA and Redalyc are aimed to preserve the academy-owned, non-commercial publishing by leveraging technologies (AI, semantics) and providing value-added services to contribute to the journals' sustainability and to prevent the adoption of commercial business models. The current collection is composed of more than 1.300 scientific journals and almost 1 million full-text OA articles. The rigorous criteria ensure the quality of the publications available on these platforms and the 10 million articles’ downloads per month account for the benefit to users worldwide.

So, it is strategic for the research community, universities, libraries and funders to join forces, as well as share and connect individual and institutional efforts to build a cooperative infrastructure that guarantees both, publishing is led by the scholarly community and its openness could be sustainable. All leveraged with technology to find more effective methods of communication and deployment of the knowledge generated by different regions, disciplinary fields or languages.