Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile: UC launches new journal portal
Promoted by UC Libraries, the digital platform will disseminate -through open access- the research contained in 32 publications of the Catholic University. This is an initiative whose main purpose is to enhance the visibility of the knowledge developed by the institution’s journals and also to strengthen the citation of articles by the national and international scientific community.
Promote and make visible the knowledge developed by research journals of the Catholic University. This is the main objective of the new UC magazine portal (revistas.uc.cl) that UC Libraries presented this Wednesday, January 12, through an event broadcast through the official UC YouTube channel .
The platform stands out for being open access to the national and international community and includes the contents of 32 research journals belonging to different academic units of the Catholic University. The project was led by a team from the UC Library System and implemented thanks to the award of the 2019 scientific journal fund from the National Research and Development Agency (Anid) . The editorial committee of UC Magazines collaborated in its development, which is made up of editors from various university publications and is led by the director of UC Libraries, Evelyn Didier.
The UC pro-rector, Guillermo Marshall, praised the creation of the new platform and highlighted that “this project goes in the direction that the university has proposed through its 2020-2025 Development Plan to be a national benchmark in the dissemination and appreciation of science, the humanities, the arts, and knowledge in all its fields. In this sense, he emphasized that research and its transfer to solve complex problems faced by society and various countries in the region and the world are an essential part of university work.
“The launch of this portal makes us happy and motivates us to continue working in favor of a model of open access to scientific and academic production that responds to current problems, which are increasingly complex and also require a interdisciplinary,” Marshall said.
“The launch of this portal motivates us to continue working in favor of a model of open access to scientific and academic production that responds to current problems, which are increasingly complex and require an interdisciplinary approach” – pro-rector UC William Marshall.
International projection
The pro-rector highlighted the relevance and international projection that this project could have for the region. Other Latin American countries have promoted platforms for open access to knowledge, such as the Regional Online Information System for Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal (Latindex), the Redalyc Scientific Information System and the project Scientific Electronic Library Online (Scielo), among others.
However, as explained by the Vice-Rector for Research, Pedro Bouchon, there is still much to be done in this area. Well, although he pointed out that there has been a significant increase in scientific articles published by authors from Latin America and the Caribbean – between 2010 and 2019 they increased in the Scopus database by almost 79% – of the total publications worldwide, the Latin American production barely reaches 3%.
The presentation of the UC journal portal was carried out remotely and included the participation of UC authorities and also Aisén Etcheverry, director of ANID.
“We need to promote the increase in scientific production in Latin America and the Caribbean and be able to translate that information into progress that impacts society, from our region to the world, thus promoting research, its financing and, along with it, the formation of researchers particularly of advanced human capital”, said the vice-rector Bouchon.
“We need to promote the increase in scientific production in Latin America and the Caribbean and be able to translate that information into progress that impacts society, from our region to the world, thus promoting research” – Vice-Rector for Research Pedro Bouchon.
He also stressed that scientific journals are the main way to disseminate the results of research generated in universities. “Our main challenge is to continue increasing the quality and visibility of publications in the Latin American context so that the production of new knowledge has an impact both in the corresponding disciplines and in the transformation of our economic, social and cultural reality, acting as a driving force. development in the region,” he added.
Open access
Aisén Etcheverry, national director of the National Research and Development Agency of Chile (ANID), the entity that allocated the funds for the materialization of the portal, also participated in the presentation ceremony of the new journal portal. “This project that we see born with great joy, seeks precisely to create and strengthen open access journals. We understand this open access as a very important potential impact not only nationally, but also regionally”, said the director of ANID, who congratulated the UC for the effort and seriousness with which it approached the development of this platform.
“We understand open access as a very important potential impact not only national, but also regional” – Aisén Etcheverry, national director of Anid.
The portal will not only generate greater visibility of the research journals of the Catholic University and promote the philosophy of open access, but will also promote the citation of the articles by the national and international scientific community, with which it will also be provides an optimal space to promote collaboration between academics from different parts of the world.
The director of UC Libraries, Evelyn Didier, along with highlighting the contribution of ANID and the joint work with the editorial committee of Revistas UC, stated that “through this open access digital platform we not only reaffirm our belonging and institutional identity, but also that we also managed to generate spaces for collaboration, training and learning, in the various issues associated with editorial management and research, which we hope will be real and concrete contributions to open science in the country, Latin America and the world”.
“Through this open access digital platform, we not only reaffirm our belonging and institutional identity, but we also manage to create spaces for collaboration, training and learning” – Evelyn Didier, director of UC Libraries.
While the editor-in-chief of the IJANR (International Journal of Agriculture and Natural Resources) journal of the UC Faculty of Agronomy and Forestry Engineering and member of the editorial committee of Revistas UC, Francisco Fuentes, emphasized that the current pandemic has exposed the relevance of knowledge generation. “Open science is becoming more relevant, in which many people can collaborate and contribute, and in which research processes are freely available, with licenses that allow the reuse, redistribution and reproduction of research,” said Fuentes.
Angular role of journal portals and libraries
The expert in media and digital publications from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona , Lluís Codina, made a presentation during the presentation of the new portal, in which he highlighted the outstanding role played by university libraries and journal portals for the development of science. “Academic communication is what makes the cumulative character of science possible. If humanity is not forced to reinvent the wheel in each generation, it is thanks to this cumulative character,” said Codina.
In addition, he highlighted that journal portals have a direct impact on people’s quality of life, by disseminating knowledge that can help humanity, which can translate into collaboration spaces and substantial improvements in their conditions and standards. The same thing happens, as Codina explained, in relation to university libraries. “The universities that understand the important role that libraries play will also be the most competitive in the demanding science scenario of the 21st century”, concluded the Pompeu Fabra University academic.