Strengthening the management of publications - literary, academic and scientific publications in Ecuador
Funding Area: Critical shared infrastructure / Infraestructura compartida critica
Problem Statement: According to UNESCO, open knowledge is a common good for society; for example, during the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide, several prestigious publishing houses made publications related to the virus available without restrictions to the scientific community. In this way, they contributed to the development of vaccines and medical treatments, among others. Many advances would be possible if economic barriers to accessing knowledge were reduced. During the last 10 years, CEDIA (Ecuadorian Corporation for the Development of Research and the Academy) has participated in the international project LA Referencia through the Network Open Access Repositories of Ecuador - RRAAE, national node in Ecuador. In addition, we are members of international organizations such as EuroCRIS, DCMI, COAR, etc., which promote Open Access, knowledge, and Open Science worldwide. Since 2020, CEDIA has provided a few editorial services; in some cases, it has subcontracted services for its researchers. At the end of the year 2022, it was proposed to formalize an editorial at the organization to provide advice to its members (Institutions of Higher Education of Ecuador). With this background, we have seen the urgent need to present a model of publication management that guarantees quality, provides visibility to each area of knowledge, provides visibility for authors and their institutions.
Proposed Activities: Phase 1: Diagnosis of the current state of Editorials in higher education institutions in Ecuador - Design the form/interview for the collection of information. - Identify and classify the Editorials according to the technological infrastructures they use for management, frequency, and use cases, among others. - Identify whether they have internal policies for the publication process (Intellectual Property, Academic Review, Rights, Open Access, Publication Times, and reviewer control, among others). Classify according to the aspects included in the existing policies. - Identify and classify according to the visualization process carried out by the publisher for its publications (Identifiers, Indexing, Harvesters, among others). - Carry out a bibliometric analysis of the publishers of HEIs in Ecuador (including relevant indicators of the publications, such as the impact they have had). Deadline: 60 days. Phase 2: Study and definition of the technological tools required by Ecuadorian Editorials - Analysis of the characteristics of the technological tools used according to the needs of the publishers. Not all publishers use appropriate technological tools. - Testing of the selected tools - Selection of the optimal tools for this project - Implementation of the tools at CEDIA Publishing House. These tools have already been implemented in Latin American and European education and research institutions, some of them are: Open Monograph Press (OPM) (https://pkp.sfu.ca/software/omp/) for books, Open Journals System (OJS) for journals, Open Preprint Systems (OPS) for preprints. Deadline: 60 days. Phase 3: Review of Editorial Policies: - Research and consult with LA Reference, COAR and platforms of indexed magazines, on institutions, in Europe and Latin America, that already have defined policies and good practices, to compare them with the results of Phase 1. - Research the evaluation parameters of the CACES (Ecuador Higher Education Quality Assurance Council), with regard to publications. - Defining the policies and best practices to follow. - Implementation in the Editorial Deadline: 90 days. Phase 4: Building a Manual of Good Editorial Practices, with application at national level: - Compilation of experiences and drafting of the Manual. - Editorial CEDIA will be the pilot project for the application of this Manual. Deadline: 60 days. Phase 5: Dissemination and Training of this good practice guide and its application in Higher Education and Research Institutions in Ecuador. Deadline: 90 days.
Openness: The purpose is to strengthen Editorials in Ecuadorian higher education institutions with technological infrastructures such as OJS, OPS, and OMP; these tools allow researchers and institutions to properly manage the flow of the process for the publication of works, articles, and preprints and comply with important parameters such as interoperability and metadata standards. Subsequently, aggregators such as the RRAAE (national) and LA REFERENCIA (regional) can harvest their information
Challenges: The challenges we face are linked to achieving the cooperation of the publishers of higher education institutions to provide us with information about their processes and the failures and needs they encounter in their day-to-day activities. Another challenge will be to initiate a change of culture among Ecuadorian scientists and researchers since it will be necessary to promote open science, higher quality standards, and manage incentives that motivate them.
Neglectedness: Previously, we have not participated or sought funding because the Editorial CEDIA is a new project. It was officially born at the end of 2022, thanks to the needs observed in the Institutions of Higher Education in Ecuador. CEDIA is an NFPO that works to meet the needs of its members and Ecuadorian researchers. One of the needs is to give visibility to the national work and to find foreign academic peers with whom to develop these research projects much more.
Success: You can measure achievements through indicators that compare the current situation of the Editorials of the IES of Ecuador with the state they will be in at the end of the project. This includes improvements in technological infrastructure, more publications on open-access platforms, and more visualization or indexing, among others.
Total Budget: USD 25.000
Budget File: pdf
Affiliations: CEDIA (Ecuadorian Corporation for the Development of Research and the Academy).
LMIE Carveout: Every year, the state reduces the resources of the universities. The general budget in 2022 was $33.899,7 million, and 9.1% was allocated to higher education institutions. In 2023, the general budget is $31,503 million, of which 4.14% is intended for higher education institutions. Most of these resources are allocated to infrastructure and teachers’ pay. Even when resources are allocated to research projects, very little is destined for their dissemination. Many researchers invest their own resources in paid indexing, which does not necessarily reach a large number of users. Sources: https://www.finanzas.gob.ec/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2022/02/Proforma-presupuestaria-2022.pdf https://www.finanzas.gob.ec/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2022/02/Proforma-presupuestaria-2022.pdf
Team Skills: Josefina Siguencia, Engineer of Systems, is a Master in Information Systems with a mention in Data Science at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador. She works at CEDIA as a specialist in the area of academics and Training, where she carries out activities that promote open access and open science, such as the LA REFERENCIA project. It has coordinated the CEDIA Repositories Working Group. Among the results obtained are: The Network of Open Access Repositories of Ecuador (RRAAE), is the node of the Ecuadorian reference. The RRAAE is an aggregator that harvests institutional repositories and digital publications, which makes the educator’s scientific production more visible. Repositories of Ecuadorian Researchers (REDI) Training programs in institutional repositories Laura Malache: Licensed in Communication and Advertising, is currently studying the Master of Information and Scientific Communication at the University of Granada, Spain. She has worked in numerous magazines in Ecuador; she has also worked as a translator and book publisher, and she is the current Editor of CEDIA Editorial
How Did You Hear About This Call: Word of mouth (e.g. conversations and emails from IOI staff, friends, colleagues, etc.) / Boca a boca (por ejemplo, conversaciones y correos electrónicos del personal del IOI, amigos, colegas, etc.)
Submission Number: 51
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