1 Challenges for the scientific community – a perspective on Latin America International Conference on Scientific Electronic Publishing in Developing Countries Valparaíso, Chile,September Ana María CettoInstituto de Física, UNAM Octavio Alonso Dir. Gen. de Bibliotecas, UNAM

2 Contents: Introduction – a multiple perspective Latin America and ICT Impact of the Internet and ep Electronic journals in Latin America Discussion and outlook (some elements)

3 Introduction: Latin America is a large and diverse region, with 33 countries and territories of different sizes and widely different degrees of development, and we cannot pretend to know their different perspectives in the field of electronic publishing in science. Important divides must be considered that range from economic and social ones to cultural, scientific and educational ones. Some of these divides are more prominent among developing countries, than between developed and developing ones...

4 Number of Internet users, October 2000 Data taken from NUA Surveys, 2000 Middle East Africa LA&C Asia/Pacific Europe US/Canada World Total

5 Asia & Oceania USA& Canada Europe LA&C Africa 59,653 Mbps 20,632 Mbps 2,638 Mbps 172 Mbps 357 Mbps 127 Mbps International Internet links, 2000 Data taken from RAND Mbps

6 IT in Latin America The development and use of ICTs in the region is marked by strong inequalities, between and within countries Most of the countries lack a fully-fledged information policy and the instruments to implement it Some regional efforts: INFOLAC – strengthening cooperation between information systems and networks RedHUCyT (OAS) - interuniversity S&T information network (supports 32 specialized information networks)

7 Impact of the Internet and electronic publishing To what extent are the ICTs changing the access, use and production of scientific information and what are the factors that facilitate or inhibit this change? 1. View of scientists – Case study: the physics community of the University of Puebla, Mexico: 78% use the Internet daily, for one hour or more, mainly for document retrieval and bibliographical databases; also for use of online electronic journals, preprints and› technical information.

8 63% use and Internet for publishing purposes: › submission of manuscripts › eprint publishing › (ejournal publishing) Principal benefits: › access to relevant scientific information › acquisition of software and tools Main obstacles: › bad connectivity and low speed › lack of guidance to services; excess of information. Impact of the Internet and ep, cont.

9 2.View of librarians – new challenges (financial, organisational,... ) 2.View of editors - varied response. To some, it facilitates the editorial process, reduces production and distribution costs, and opens new possibilities and mechanisms of diffusion. First collections of electronic journals (early 1990s), Artemisa, Infomed The experience in the fields of health and biomedicine set the proper ground for more recent initatives in other fields.

10 Electronic journals in Latin America The development of electronic journals in the region has been very uneven Their tracing and registration is complicated by instabilities such as the change of URLs or renaming of titles The searching task has been considerably eased with the recent creation of portals, both geographical and thematic Some of these constitute true virtual libraries, based on standardized methodologies and having easy and attractive search interfaces.

11 Full-text online electronic journals – per discipline 1. Med.& Publ.Health History Agric. sciences Chemistry Multidisciplinary Earth Sciences Economics Law Biology Politics Education Lit.& Linguistics Sociology Communication 8 8. Arts Management 6 9. Psychology Anthropology Engineering Physics Libr.& Inf. Sci Philosophy 3 12.Comp.& Maths Demography 2 Source: LATINDEX Total: 727

12 Full-text online electronic journals – per country 1. Argentina Honduras 1 2. Bahamas1 13. Mexico Bolivia1 14. Paraguay 1 4. Brazil Peru Chile Portugal 3 6. Colombia Puerto Rico 2 7. Costa Rica8 18. Spain Cuba Uruguay 3 9. Ecuador2 20. Venezuela El Salvador2 21. Intl. Organis Guatemala3 Total 727 Source: LATINDEX