CLACSO promotes open access to knowledge through its virtual library containing over 80,000 documents freely available online. It aims to disseminate social science research more broadly and enrich public debate. However, only 16% of Latin American journals are included in Scopus and 5% in Web of Science, showing regional inequalities. CLACSO advocates for open access policies that make publicly funded research openly available, strengthen local open access initiatives, and consider a variety of impact measures rather than just international bibliometric indicators.

1. Gaps and challenges to the Open
Access of information: CLACSO´s
experience
NGO UNESCO Liaison Committee
2016 International Conference of Non-Governmental
Organizations (NGOs)
Pablo Vommaro (PhD)
(CLACSO-UBA)Latin American Council of Social Sciences

2. The Open Access and Dissemination of
Knowledge is a decentralized collaborative
and digital action which promotes new ways
of dissemination and distribution of social
knowledge by promoting open access to
research findings and debates in the field of
the social sciences.
CLACSO also promotes new forms of
disseminating knowledge produced by social
researchers, in order to reach more
audiences and enrich the debate and public
opinion in our society.
http://www.clacso.org.ar/libreria-lati
http://biblioteca.clacso.edu.ar/
More than 80.000 full text in open access

3. OPEN ACCESS TO KNOWLEDGE CAMPAIGN
CLACSO promotes a model of open access to knowledge as a human right
which is managed as a common good, and based on solidarity,
inclusiveness, and non-commercial access, and defends this position in
the international arena where commercial and non-commercial
alternatives are constantly debated, in order to achieve a renewal in
scientific and scholarly communications, and society in general.The CLACSO Virtual Library has more than 80,000 open access documents
and 1,000,000 average monthly downloads. It is one of the largest Virtual
Libraries in the field of the social sciences in the world.
CLACSO publications can be downloaded in open access or be purchased in
hard copy at the Latin American and Caribbean Library of Social Sciences,
with deliveries worldwide.

4. Regional inequalities in open access information:
international indexes’ sample
World scaled by number of documents in Web of Science by Authors Living
There Juan Pablo Alperín (2014, LSE Impact Blog)
.
.
.
From a total of 5.879 quality journals from Latin America (Latindex)
16 % in Scopus (841 Journals) and 5 % in WoS (294 journals)

5. Regional Open Access declaration (2005)
Salvador de Bahía Declaration on Open Access: The Developing
World Perspective (promoted by SciELO)
We urge governments to make Open Access a high priority
in science policies including:
•requiring that publicly funded research is made available
through Open Access;
•considering the cost of publication as part of the cost of
research;
•strengthening the local OA journals, repositories and other
relevant initiatives;
•promoting integration of developing countries scientific
information in the worldwide body of knowledge.
We call on all stakeholders in the international community
to work together to ensure that scientific information is
openly accessible and freely available to all
http://www.icml9.org/meetings/openaccess/public/docu
ments/declaration.htm

6. CLACSO´s Declaration on open access to knowledge
managed as a commons by the scholarly community
Principles:
1. Provide open access to publicly funded research results, both texts and data (open access and open
data).
2. Promote and fund projects and working groups aimed at improving the quality of scholarly editorial
processes; as peer-review and internationalization (e.g.: publication in local language and in English
when research is of international interest) in the contents of open access digital repositories, publishing
platforms and journals.
3. Encourage editors of scholarly journals to retain control, experience and knowledge of the editorial
processes and its products, regardless of the platforms of visibility and indexing with which they share
metadata and content
4. Ensure that open access repositories, publishing platforms and publications are interoperable with
national, regional and international systems and portals to achieve a multiplying effect on the visibility
and access to research results by local, regional and international public.
5. When evaluating researchers and institutions, consider indicators provided by open access
repositories, publishing platforms and publications, as well as other measures of impact and relevance
in local and regional contexts, to complement traditional international bibliometric indicators that
poorly reflect the production and impact of research from developing countries.
6. Support and promote worldwide access to knowledge as a human right, and its management as a
commons by the scholarly community.
7. Collaboratives actions with CODESRIA (Africa) and Arab Council for the Social Sciences (ACSS)
http://goo.gl/cqx9bl

7. Other digital strategies to have visibility: opening
access to social sciences, humanities and
information
| Open access to research
results and debates
+ 4 million monthly downloads
from CLACSO´s digital
repositories and catalog
+ 2,500 hours of interviews
and documentary films
www.clacso.tv
Promotion in social networks:
+ 30,000 followers
+ 170,000
+ 60,000 in CLACSO´s mailing
| Open access to its events
On line / Off line
35.000 participants at its last
triennial conference in Medellín,
Colombia, Nov. 2015