Declaration on non-commercial open access to knowledge in times of COVID-19

Scientific knowledge in Latin America has historically been open. Non-profit scientific communication does not only open access in times of crisis!

The current global health emergency has revealed the urgent need for unrestricted access to scientific knowledge, as this contributes substantially to developing vaccines, improving treatments, and designing public policies in the midst of a pandemic.

It is essential to reflect not only on the importance of opening up knowledge, but also on the context and strategies with which this is done, in the search for a sustainable phenomenon that does not generate new exclusions in other phases of science communication.  

La University of Arizona It is important to note that, in response to the unprecedented and rapidly changing circumstances related to the Coronavirus outbreak, several publishers of academic textbooks and e-books have temporarily opened access to their otherwise restricted materials. Much of this material is available temporarily. Open Access to this content is not expected to be permanent (unless it involves open publications or educational materials that have always been available in this way). 

Some of the responses from publishing companies are along the following lines: 

The declaration of SAGE Publishing Regarding COVID-19, it includes the following action: "We have eliminated the Gateway subscription to articles that we believe "They will be valuable to researchers and professionals at this time." 

Response springer nature It states: “Springer Nature is committed to supporting the global response to COVID-19 by providing rapid and direct access to the latest research, evidence, and data.” Springer has made more than 19,000 articles and book chapters freely available and, among other actions, has published more than 490 new articles on COVID-19.

For its part, Taylor & Francis It states: “In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Taylor & Francis is providing free access to relevant research articles to support the global effort to diagnose, treat, and prevent COVID-19.”

Similarly, Elsevier y Wiley They granted “full access” to a collection of resources related to Coronavirus and COVID-19. It is worth noting that the Elsevier portal called Coronavirus Research Hub It states that it will only be open until the 28 October of 2020. 

The emerging openness on the part of commercial publishers only serves to demonstrate that Open Access, as mentioned MurrayIt saves lives. SoWhat about other diseases? Isn't the primary goal of science the development of humanity and saving lives? What about other societal ailments that can be addressed with scientific knowledge? Is there any rational justification for not opening access to knowledge or for opening it only temporarily? On what basis, and by whom, are the decisions made about which findings to release? Who has the power to do so?

In times of crisis like the one we are experiencing with the COVID-19 pandemic, information for making sound decisions is crucial. It's not just about providing timely responses, defining relevant public policies, and resolving management problems immediately, but also about accessing the knowledge and data that are created and updated daily to form the scientific body of knowledge applicable by experts in communities, clinics, and healthcare facilities in general, as well as by national and local governments. 

Having open access to medical information is just as important as knowing what's happening and what scientific studies help us understand society in these times. Understanding and analyzing how societies behave in this unusual situation is also a science that helps society.

The Latin American region has distinguished itself for decades by maintaining scientific communication anchored in academia, through scientific journals published by educational institutions, research centers, or universities. Platforms such as Redalyc, Latindex, SciELO, and recently AmeliCAThey have contributed to the sustainability, visibility and consolidation of the regional non-commercial Open Access system for journals published in the region.

The journals in our region do not open their content only in emergencies; they do so always, indiscriminately and permanently, from a vision towards the democratization of knowledge whose beneficiaries are not only readers and researchers in the region, but the general public. 

This availability is what can make it possible to contextualize public policies in Latin American countries, leading to solutions for the most pressing effects of COVID-19 and finding appropriate solutions, as some countries are doing, such as Costa Rica y Argentina in the field of medicine. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, journals and platforms have reaffirmed their commitment to open access. Redalyc and AmeliCA have organized all the knowledge related to epidemics, COVID-19, and Coronavirus from Open Access articles in journals that Redalyc indexa (available here) to help researchers uncover the fabric of that knowledge, using a specialized search engine and a dataset open in language of Linked OpenData where 6,737 scientific articles by 27,336 authors from 65 countries are registered. Another example is the creation of the Coronavirus collection from the regional health repository (Virtual Health Library -PAHO, WHO-BIREME-) and the Social Observatory of the Coronavirus created by CLACSO.

This period of emergency should lead us to consider how to strengthen our infrastructure and publications, increase their visibility, and sustain their non-profit nature. We call on governments and institutions to continue and reinforce their support for non-commercial publications. This aligns well with initiatives such as InvestInOpenwhich calls for investment in open, non-commercial infrastructure or SCOSS (The Global Sustainability Coalition for Open Science Services), a coalition of funders to secure investment through crowdfunding in Open Access and Open Science infrastructure.

Latindex, Redalyc, CLACSO e IBICTThey argue that Non-Commercial Open Access and the infrastructure that supports it are meaningless without mechanisms to protect them and launch the “Declaration of Mexico in favor of the Latin American ecosystem of non-commercial Open Access”A joint statement on the use of the CC BY-NC-SA license “to guarantee the protection of open access academic and scientific output.” They also acknowledge that non-commercial open access cannot be strengthened without modifying current evaluation systems and They adhere to the “San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA)". 

Our CLACSO Working Group, Open Knowledge as a Common Good, Composed of 28 researchers from 13 institutions in 9 countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Spain, Mexico and Uruguay), it considers it urgent to focus the efforts of the scientific community towards collaboration and the strengthening of non-commercial and academically directed Open Access; only in this way can it be guaranteed that the control, its direction and its interests are those of the academic community and not those of commercial corporations; only in this way can total Open Access be achieved without costs for reading or publishing. 

However, this is not new news, as our call for open knowledge stems from a reflective and analytical stance we have adopted in Latin America for decades, always based on the region's experience and the best traditions of sharing our resources. Undoubtedly, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the fractures in the commercial publishing system and its power, but also the needs of the Latin American region to achieve the future sustainability of its Open Access ecosystem.

June 9, 2020
CLACSO Working Group
Open knowledge as a common good

This statement expresses the position of the Open Knowledge as a Common Good Working Group and not necessarily that of the centers and institutions that make up the CLACSO international network, its Steering Committee or its Executive Secretariat.

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