The Center for the Study of the Circulation of Knowledge (CECIC) at the National University of Cuyo (UNCuyo) is a leading regional institution in research on the production, circulation, and evaluation of scientific knowledge. With more than two decades of uninterrupted work, the Center has established a collaborative program that integrates research, international cooperation, and training, under the direction of Dr. Fernanda Beigel.
Origins and History: From PIDAAL to CECIC
The main predecessor of CECIC is the Research Program on Academic Dependency in Latin America (PIDAAL), launched in 2004 within the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences at UNCuyo (FCPyS) and the Institute of Human, Social, and Environmental Sciences (INCIHUSA) of the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET). Its founding objective was to explore the historical and structural development of peripheral scientific fields between 1950 and 1980 through comparative studies of Chile, Argentina, and Brazil, as well as research focused on regional organizations such as UNESCO, CLACSO, FLACSO, ECLAC, ILPES, DESAL, and ILADES. During this initial phase, the team conducted meticulous archival research on scholarship programs and funding for academic mobility provided by U.S. foundations such as Fulbright, Rockefeller, and Ford, along with the renowned Camelot Project.
Beginning in 2010, PIDAAL launched a second phase dedicated to the study of contemporary scientific fields and the role of peripheral centers in the international circulation of knowledge. The focus expanded to include national dynamics in university policy, the links between research and teaching, the professionalization of public administration, evaluation cultures, and the impact of internationalization and publication networks. This journey enabled a conceptual shift from the traditional notion of “internationalization” toward a multi-scalar conception of the circulation of knowledge—a perspective that today defines CECIC’s academic identity.
The Center’s institutional consolidation is reflected in its critical mass: by 2024, CECIC brought together 25 CONICET researchers, faculty-researchers from UNCuyo, the National University of San Juan (UNSJ), and the National University of Tres de Febrero (UNTREF), as well as fellowship recipients. Between 2004 and 2026, X doctoral dissertations and X master’s theses were defended there, and ten of the young scholars trained at the Center currently work as CONICET researchers. Furthermore, CECIC regularly hosts international visitors from Chile, Spain, Mexico, France, and Brazil, and coordinates Espacio Bourdieu Argentina, a network that brings together researchers from fifteen national universities.
Areas of Research
CECIC’s scientific agenda is organized around six main lines of research, all of which are underpinned by a commitment to understanding how scientific knowledge is produced, disseminated, and evaluated in peripheral contexts:
- Study on the accessibility and circulation of scientific journals. This study examines the conditions of access and visibility of Argentine publications, with a special focus on regional circuits and the structural asymmetries of the scientific system.
- Study on the accessibility of Argentine publications and expenditures on article processing charges (APCs). This study analyzes the transition to open access and the economic implications that the article processing charge model has for researchers and institutions. To date, various countries in Latin America and Africa have been studied.
- Analysis of evaluation cultures. This examines the dynamics and characteristics of existing evaluation systems at CONICET and national universities, with the aim of providing evidence to support their transformation.
- Institutional studies on the circulation of scientific research. This seeks to create circulation indicators and generate primary data that will enable the development of university typologies, based on the recognition that different types of knowledge circulate in peripheral regions.
- Studies on recognition circuits and publications. This line of research expands the analysis beyond hegemonic databases (WoS-Scopus), incorporating complete corpora of publications from regional repositories and circuits.
- Research Program on Academic Dependency in Latin America (PIDAAL). A foundational research line that continues to contribute to the historical-structural study of the Latin American scientific-university field.
Current Major Research Projects
- Latin American Observatory of Evaluation Indicators (Oliva)
Oliva is a regional, collaborative, and interdisciplinary initiative based at CECIC that seeks to address the challenges of raising the visibility and recognizing the value of scientific output published in Latin America and the Caribbean. The project brought together SciELO, Redalyc, and CLACSO to develop indicators that reflect the disciplinary, linguistic, and geographic breadth of regional scholarly output, overcoming the lack of interoperability among journal platforms, portals, and repositories. The Oliva 1.0 version created a dataset comprising 1,720 journals, 908,982 documents, and 2,802,295 authors, with detailed metadata on the publications and their access conditions.
- Study on the Circulation of Knowledge Produced at UNCuyo
Coordinated by Fabiana Bekerman and Fernanda Beigel, this project analyzes the modes of production, circulation, and dissemination of knowledge generated at the National University of Cuyo. The final report, published in 2024, systematizes indicators on the academic body, graduate programs, research agendas, and the links between research, outreach, and society. The study is part of CECIC’s strategy to generate primary data for the design of evidence-based institutional policies.
- UNESCO Project on Open Science Production Indicators
Funded by UNESCO, this project—titled “Open Science Production Indicators: Building Bridges Toward the Interoperability of Information Systems in Argentina”—aims to develop tools to measure and compare open-access scientific output, thereby strengthening the country’s scientific information infrastructure. CECIC’s participation in this initiative is linked to the role of its director as chair of UNESCO’s Open Science Advisory Committee since 2020, the body that drafted the Open Science Recommendation adopted in November 2021.
- Comparative Studies on University Research Profiles
In collaboration with UNSJ and UNSAM, CECIC is conducting comparative research on the diverse research profiles at Argentina’s national universities, with the aim of understanding the various modes of institutionalization and circulation of knowledge within the university system.
A critical perspective and an international outlook
CECIC is distinguished by its critical perspective on the hierarchies of the global scientific system and by its promotion of an approach to the circulation of knowledge that recognizes the plurality of academic circuits, languages, and traditions. Its participation in international networks, its publications—which include X edited volumes published between 2010 and 2026—and its capacity to train researchers solidify its position as a leading center for the social studies of science in Latin America.
With a history spanning more than two decades and a research agenda focused on the contemporary challenges of open science, academic evaluation, and the regional circulation of knowledge, CECIC reaffirms its commitment to producing rigorous and socially relevant knowledge at the National University of Cuyo.