Ana María Cetto, a Mexican physicist and research professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, has long promoted open science. Last month she was named president of UNESCO’s Open Science Steering Committee. Open science seeks to make scientific information, data and results more accessible and more useful to society.
Cetto warns that science has faced a steady process of privatisation. She describes how some publishing companies charge both to publish research and to give access to articles. According to her, the pay-to-publish trend and access fees limit access to knowledge and concentrate benefits in a few powerful countries, widening the gap between rich science economies and other nations.
In response, Cetto promotes regional platforms and policies to keep scientific knowledge a public good. She chairs Latindex, which makes more than 26,000 scientific journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal available free of charge. Latindex began its work in 1996 and supports open access, multilingualism and the defence of Spanish and Portuguese publications.
Other regional initiatives have followed. The Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO) has organised meetings about evaluation systems that push researchers to publish in certain journals. Research indexing services such as Redalyc and Scielo have helped spread open-access practices and build systems for open science.
- Challenges include low investment in infrastructure in many countries.
- Governments that signed UNESCO’s recommendation must now turn statements into action.
- Cetto says open science must also include other knowledge systems and dialogue with communities outside formal science.
Note: the related video was edited on 13 February 2023. The piece was produced by SciDev.Net’s Latin America & Caribbean desk.
Difficult words
- privatisation — Transfer of services into private control
- pay-to-publish — System where authors pay to publish research
- open access — Free online availability of research publicationsopen-access
- multilingualism — Use of multiple languages in communication
- infrastructure — Basic physical and organizational facilities and systems
- public good — Resource meant to be available to everyone
Tip: hover, focus or tap highlighted words in the article to see quick definitions while you read or listen.
Discussion questions
- Do you think regional platforms like Latindex can reduce the gap between rich and poorer science economies? Why or why not?
- What concrete steps could governments take to turn UNESCO’s recommendation on open science into action in your country or region?
- How can open science include other knowledge systems and create dialogue with communities outside formal science? Give examples.
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