CLACSO and “Open Book Collective”, democratizing knowledge
Since November 2025, at CLACSO we have embarked on a strategic path together with the Open Book Collective (OBC) with the project“Knowledge open to the community: CLACSO as a platform for the democratization of academic publishing in Latin America and the Caribbean”. This effort is not an isolated event, but the continuation of 30 years of sustained work in the production and preservation of the scientific heritage of our region.
Today we want to share with our community the most recent milestones and the steps we are taking to strengthen non-commercial open access.
Global presence and regional alliances
During this period the project has played a leading role in key international spaces to position the Latin American perspective:
-Guadalajara Agreement and the Ibero-American Council: At the Guadalajara International Book Fair 2025, we participated in the signing of the constitution of the Ibero-American Council of University and Academic Publishers, which brings together more than 500 publishers, has as its main purpose to promote open access, to support open science and responsible evaluation in the region, as well as to defend bibliodiversity and the use of Spanish and Portuguese as languages of science.
-World Summit in India: We took our publishing model to the III Global Summit on Open Access Diamond World in Bengaluru, IndiaThe conference, held from February 2-6, 2026, provided a forum for sharing experiences with institutions from the Global South, particularly from Asia and Africa. Under the theme "Collaboration for Equitable Digital Infrastructures and Knowledge Commons in Agriculture and Scientific Research Systems in General," the meeting in Bengaluru was a key space for sharing experiences, addressing challenges, debating, and defining the future of this model of academic communication that guarantees free access for both authors and readers, thus strengthening the democratization of knowledge globally. Speakers from various initiatives and countries presented progress on digital policies and infrastructures for non-profit academic communication, collaborative and inclusive management models, and ongoing experiences and implementations.
-Next stop, Berlin: In March, CLACSO will be the voice of the region in Germany at the Earth and Environmental Sciences Global Data Resilience Convention (Berlin, Germany, March 23-27) to discuss publishing and open science in fields where open access is not yet a priority, such as earth, space, and environmental sciences. CLACSO's presence is related to its role as a coordinator of more than 1.000 educational institutions, offering a regional perspective on open science, but above all, on open access books. We can contribute a regional and institutional perspective on the nascent development of data repositories in the social sciences, and on the FAIR principles that we have adopted. promoted. The The objective includes reviewing current challenges and risks, sustainability, and the importance of global collaboration.
Training and scholarships: committed to equality
One of the pillars of the project is the professionalizationTherefore, we are working on:
- Specialized training course: A program of 8 classes Designed for specialists, teachers and librarians, it will serve as a reference for the management of repositories.
- Virtual classroom: We have already begun designing a pedagogical space on the CLACSO campus to centralize course resources and communication.
- Scholarship system: In order to leave no one behind, we designed a scholarship system aimed at priority countries (such as Bolivia, Peru, Honduras, El Salvador, Haiti, Dominican Republic and Paraguay) and peripheral regions of countries such as Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, among others, seeking to provide library staff and social activists with access to cutting-edge technical tools.
A tool for the future: The Guide to Good Practices
We are currently developing the Guide to good practices in open accessA key tool for professionalizing university and academic presses. This guide, developed collaboratively with publishing associations in Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula, will address critical issues such as:
-Technical standards for efficient management.
-High-quality metadata to improve global visibility.
-Long-term digital preservation strategies.
-Transition towards models of Diamond Open Access, eliminating dependence on book processing charges (BPCs).
Knowledge is a common good
We are convinced that knowledge not only belongs to the community, but is built with it. Through these advances, we reaffirm our commitment to open, fair, and accessible science for everyone.
