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Challenges for the scientific community – a perspective on Latin America

This article explores the challenges faced by the scientific community in Latin America in the field of electronic publishing. It discusses the impact of the Internet and electronic journals in the region and presents case studies on how scientists, librarians, and editors are adapting to these changes.

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Challenges for the scientific community – a perspective on Latin America

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  1. Challenges for the scientific community – a perspective on Latin America International Conference on Scientific Electronic Publishing in Developing Countries Valparaíso, Chile,September 2002. Ana María Cetto Instituto de Física, UNAM Octavio Alonso Dir. Gen. de Bibliotecas, UNAM

  2. Contents: • Introduction – a multiple perspective • Latin America and ICT • Impact of the Internet and ep • Electronic journals in Latin America • Discussion and outlook (some elements)

  3. Introduction: Latin America is a large and diverse region, with 33 countries and territories of different sizes and widely different degrees of development, and we cannot pretend to know their different perspectives in the field of electronic publishing in science. Important divides must be considered that range from economic and social ones to cultural, scientific and educational ones. Some of these divides are more prominent among developing countries, than between developed and developing ones...

  4. Number of Internet users, October 2000 Middle East Africa LA&C Asia/Pacific Europe US/Canada World Total Data taken from NUA Surveys, 2000

  5. International Internet links, 2000 USA& Canada 59,653 Mbps Europe 20,632 Mbps Asia & Oceania 357 Mbps 513 Mbps 172 Mbps 127 Mbps Africa 2,638 Mbps LA&C Data taken from RAND 2001

  6. IT in Latin America The development and use of ICTs in the region is marked by strong inequalities, between and within countries Most of the countries lack a fully-fledged information policy and the instruments to implement it Some regional efforts: INFOLAC – strengthening cooperation between information systems and networks RedHUCyT (OAS) - interuniversity S&T information network (supports 32 specialized information networks)

  7. Impact of the Internet and electronic publishing To what extent are the ICTs changing the access, use and production of scientific information and what are the factors that facilitate or inhibit this change? 1. View of scientists – Case study: the physics community of the University of Puebla, Mexico: 78% use the Internet daily, for one hour or more, mainly for document retrieval andbibliographical databases; also for use of online electronic journals, preprints and› technical information.

  8. Impact of the Internet and ep, cont. 63% use email and Internet for publishing purposes: › submission of manuscripts › eprint publishing › (ejournal publishing) Principal benefits: › access to relevant scientific information › acquisition of software and tools Main obstacles: › bad connectivity and low speed › lack of guidance to services; excess of information.

  9. Impact of the Internet and ep, cont. • View of librarians – new challenges (financial, organisational, ... ) • View of editors - varied response. • To some, it facilitates the editorial process, reduces production and distribution costs, and opens new possibilities and mechanisms of diffusion. • First collections of electronic journals (early 1990s), Artemisa, Infomed • The experience in the fields of health and biomedicine set the proper ground for more recent initatives in other fields.

  10. Electronic journals in Latin AmericaThe development of electronic journals in the region has been very unevenTheir tracing and registration is complicated by instabilities such as the change of URLs or renaming of titlesThe searching task has been considerably eased with the recent creation of portals, both geographical and thematicSome of these constitute true virtual libraries, based on standardized methodologies and having easy and attractive search interfaces.

  11. Full-text online electronic journals – per discipline 1. Med.& Publ.Health 266 13. History 18 2. Agric. sciences 45 14. Chemistry 17 3. Multidisciplinary 39 15. Earth Sciences 17 4. Economics 37 16. Law 17 5. Biology 34 17. Politics 14 6. Education 33 18. Lit.& Linguistics 10 7. Sociology 31 19. Communication 8 8. Arts 28 20. Management 6 9. Psychology 27 21. Anthropology 5 10. Engineering 26 22. Physics 5 11. Libr.& Inf. Sci. 20 23. Philosophy 3 12.Comp.& Maths. 19 24. Demography 2 • Source: LATINDEX Total: 727

  12. Full-text online electronic journals – per country 1. Argentina 29 12. Honduras 1 2. Bahamas 1 13. Mexico 132 3. Bolivia 1 14. Paraguay 1 4. Brazil 172 15. Peru 11 5. Chile 53 16. Portugal 3 6. Colombia 43 17. Puerto Rico 2 7. Costa Rica 8 18. Spain 194 8. Cuba 41 19. Uruguay 3 9. Ecuador 2 20. Venezuela 16 10. El Salvador 2 21. Intl. Organis. 3 11. Guatemala 3 Total 727 Source: LATINDEX

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