LA Reference, Federated Network of Institutional Repositories of Scientific Publications, is led by science, technology and innovation organizations from Latin America, the Caribbean and Spain. Its mission is to offer in Open Access scientific production financed with public funds from Latin America, the Caribbean and Spain, through the cooperation and articulation of a federated network of institutional repositories, based on regional agreements and national Open Access and Open Science strategies.

Between June 2010 and December 2013, the project “Regional Strategy and Interoperability and Management Framework for a Latin American Federated Network of Institutional Repositories of Scientific Documentation” was developed. This project, which gave rise to LA Reference, was presented to the Regional Public Goods Fund of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) by RedCLARA with the participation of the science and technology organizations of Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico

During the execution of the project, Argentina, Ecuador, El Salvador, Peru and Venezuela were incorporated, the first version of the harvest software was developed and implemented, the first interoperability guidelines were developed and the general operating framework of the Network was established. Likewise, its legal, technological and financial framework was defined and the project was ready for its execution phase. As a consequence of the above, on November 29, 2012 in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, the nine countries participating in the project signed the “Cooperation Agreement between High Authorities of Science, Technology and Innovation of Latin America for the Constitution of LA Reference” which is founded by LA Reference and establishes that its mission is to promote cooperation between the member countries for the access, recovery and visibility of scientific production in Latin America as a regional public good.

Te and Uruguay, has a technical and administrative structure that is supported by contributions from the member countries and supported by the RedCLARA, Latin American Cooperation of Advanced Networks; a Board of Directors that functions as a sovereign body and in turn directs LA Reference, whose members are appointed by the authorities of each member country; and a Technical Committee made up of the people responsible for the operation of the national nodes.

CONSIDERING:

  1. That LA Reference, an initiative of Latin America and the Caribbean made up of the governments of the region, whose mission is to provide access, recovery and visibility of the scientific production of Latin America as a global public good, allowing equitable access to information, with the firm commitment that each member country will contribute its scientific production in Open Access ([Regional Cooperation Agreement - Act of Buenos Aires that constitutes LA Reference, 2012] (http://www.lareferencia.info/es/recursos/documentos/acuerdos-politicos/2-acuerdo-de-cooperacion-regional-acta-de-buenos-aires-que-constituye-la-referencia-2012)).

  2. That UNESCO in its Recommendation on Open Science (2021), defines it as:

Inclusive construct that combines diverse movements and practices in order to make multilingual scientific knowledge openly available and accessible to all, as well as reusable by all, increase scientific collaborations and the exchange of information for the benefit of science and society, and open the processes of creation, evaluation and communication of scientific knowledge to social agents beyond the traditional scientific community. Open science encompasses all scientific disciplines and all aspects of academic practices, including basic and applied sciences, natural and social sciences and the humanities, and is based on the following key pillars: open scientific knowledge, open science infrastructures, scientific communication, open participation of social agents and open dialogue with other knowledge systems.

  1. That the Open Access model for scientific-technological production implies that users can, free of charge, read, download, copy, distribute, print, link the full texts of scientific documents, and use them for legitimate purposes linked to scientific research, education or the management of public policies, without other economic, legal or technical barriers than those represented by the Internet itself, the only condition that the model poses for the reproduction and distribution of works is the obligation to grant the Authors have control over the integrity of their work, as well as the right to be properly recognized and cited. In this sense, it does not collide with the intellectual property rights system in any way.

  2. That Open Access is a fundamental pillar of Open Science and that LA Reference has the interest and capacity to deepen the commitment assumed by the authorities in their 2012 Declaration to address these issues in order to collaborate with the development and strengthening of an infrastructure in the region of Latin America, the Caribbean and Spain of non-commercial Open Science.

  3. We declare of priority interest to work on the following lines during the coming years:

A. Work together with the governments of Latin America, the Caribbean and Spain to achieve complete political representation of the region in the governance of LA Reference.

B. Continue the dialogue and articulation of regional and national Open Science policies in the member countries.

C. Deepen alliances with regional and international Open Science initiatives, to seek collaboration and interoperability agreements that allow the construction of a Regional Open Science Ecosystem.

D. Integrate education and research networks as national, regional and international connectivity and infrastructure platforms for Open Science.

E. Promote the necessary changes in research evaluation to promote the use of Open Science indicators and metrics.

F. Promote that the scientific and academic production of each member country is published in Non-Commercial Open Access (green and diamond paths); In the event that any production has disclosure or distribution restrictions, the metadata of said production must be provided and publicly accessible.

G. Promote necessary cultural changes in research communities regarding Open Access publications and reuse of Research Data.

H. Develop more infrastructure and technological tools to support good Open Science practices, always attributed as Regional Public Goods.

Download the Declaration document here