OPINION – Essays and Experiences on Open Science. “Dominique Babini” Prize

The “Dominique Babini” Prize is a joint initiative of the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO), through its Working Group “Open Science as a Common Good”; Redalyc, AmeliCA, LA Referencia, and UNESCO (Paris). It aims to stimulate the production of rigorous studies and systematize democratizing experiences related to various components of open science, and to pay tribute to and give well-deserved recognition to the career of Dominique Babini, a pioneer of the Latin American and Caribbean open access movement and one of the most insightful, committed, and generous figures in the field of open science studies and intervention worldwide, with a perspective from the Global South.

In a world constantly vying for access to and circulation of knowledge as a common good, various individuals, collective projects, and institutions from Latin America and the Caribbean have contributed decisive positions, actions, and experiences to its democratization through sustained collaborative practices and openness to new infrastructures, diverse audiences, and generations. This is the case of the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO), where Dominique has been carrying out essential work for decades promoting, training, knowledge production, and professional intervention in favor of the “non-commercial open access model to knowledge,” as she prefers to call it, to make it clear that in our region we defend knowledge as a public good. In her words, “the global academic and scientific community must be the one to safeguard open access academic communications, including peer review, quality control, and evaluation indicator systems.”

The Call paid for the submission of essay proposals, research results and systematizations of experiences aimed at postgraduate students, professors and researchers interested, specialists and activists committed to the advancement of open science, endorsed by Member Centers of the CLACSO network.

In this first edition in 2024, the Dominique Babini Prize aimed to receive essays focused on three thematic areas:

1. Progress and challenges in open access as a global common good
2. Experiences of cognitive justice through openness in the Latin American and Caribbean open science movement
3. Systematization of innovative practices on open science in the context
   Latin American and Caribbean.

During the registration process, the following steps were opened: 47 forms and were finally received 17 applications, of which, after technical and formal review, 14 The essay proposals were in a position to be qualitatively evaluated by the International Committee to consider the quality, relevance and coherence of the proposals according to the Call.

The evaluation process was carried out by an International Committee composed of 4 experts from 4 countries: Eduardo Aguado López (Mexico), Laura Bonora (Spain), Claudia De Souza (Puerto Rico) and Guillermina D'Onofrio (Argentina).

According to the evaluation carried out, the list of selected proposals from the Call for Proposals is as follows:

Order of merit	Authors	CLACSO member center	Country	Title of the proposal
1	Fernando Ariel López	Workers' Innovation Center – CITRA – CONICET and UMET (Metropolitan University for Education and Work)	Argentina	Evolution of Open Access and Research Data Management in Higher Education in Argentina
2	María Ángela Petrizzo Paez – Maria Paz Míguez – Jesica Formoso – Laura Ación – Nicolás Palopoli	Southern Anthropologies Network Foundation – REDAS	Venezuela	Epistemic Justice and Open Science in Latin America and the Caribbean: The MetaTeaching Case
3	Lisha Dávila	Center for Advanced Studies – FCS/UNC – Faculty of Social Sciences – National University of Córdoba	Argentina	Paradoxes of open access: Is public communication of science a key to accessibility and appropriation?

Having been selected, the awards will be given in the following order:

1 °) Partial support for participation in an International Seminar on the theme of the Call (to be held during 2025) and the publication of the work in a collective book co-edited by CLACSO, together with the Working Group “Open Science as a Common Good”.

2 °) A 100% scholarship to take one of the training courses offered by CLACSO (virtual seminars or Higher Diplomas in 2025) and the publication of the work in a collective book co-edited by CLACSO together with the Working Group “Open Science as a Common Good”.

3 °) Publication of the work in a collective book co-edited by CLACSO together with the Working Group “Open Science as a Common Good”

Furthermore, due to the quality and strength of the proposals, the following awards are granted honorable mentions:

Authors	CLACSO member center	Country	Title of the proposal
Aurora Lechuga Rodríguez	Secretariat of Development and Institutional Linkage – UNA – National University of the Arts	Argentina	Model of an Open Access Institutional Repository for the International Cooperation Network of National Universities (REDCIUN): University Education in the Arts in Latin America and the Caribbean
María Fernanda Solano	Faculty of Social Sciences – UNA – Faculty of Social Sciences – National University	Costa Rica	Strategies to Protect and Strengthen Scientific-Academic Journals in the Diamond Pathway: An Analysis of the Management Model of the National University of Costa Rica
Ezequiel Vallejo	Faculty of Social Sciences – UNA – Faculty of Social Sciences – National University	Costa Rica	Open science and open access as a bridge to inclusion for people with disabilities globally
Daniela Vanesa Perrotta	Secretariat of Research and Postgraduate Studies – SIPFyL/UBA – Faculty of Philosophy and Letters – University of Buenos Aires	Argentina	Political mobilization for the right to knowledge in Latin America and the Caribbean: from non-commercial open access to open science. Networks, ideas, and regional strategies to challenge and transform the global landscape from the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO)
Yatzaira Coromoto Fragozo Perez	Center for Studies of Social Transformations, Science and Knowledge – CETSCC/IVIC – Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research	Venezuela	Collaborative science for social intervention and public policy design
Sergio Santamarina	Institute of Social Studies in Contexts of Inequality – UNPAZ – National University of José C. Paz	Argentina	Persistent Identifiers, the Achilles' heel of Open Science

 

The works of the honorable mentions will be published in the collective book.

This ruling is irrevocable and cannot be appealed.

Buenos Aires, December 27, 2024.