The project “Open Access Publishing in Uruguay: A Study on Circulation Practices and the Problem of APCs” is led by Exequiel Arón Fontans Álvarez (FIC-UDELAR, Uruguay), with the participation of CECIC researchers Fabio Erreguerena, Soledad Gomez, Manuel Bruccoleri, and Fernanda Beigel. The project was approved in December 2024 and is currently underway. It is funded by the National Agency for Research and Innovation (ANII).
Among its main objectives, the project aims to implement in Uruguay the International Survey on Publishing Practices and Article Processing Charges (APCs), which was carried out between 2023 and 2024 in several countries as part of the research project “A comparative analysis of open science, access, and circulation of knowledge in Latin America and Africa,” led by Fernanda Beigel (CECIC) and funded by the Global Research Institute of Paris (GRIP).
The survey not only addresses the challenges of Open Access publishing with APCs, but also researchers’ knowledge of green and diamond pathways, as well as how journal prestige is defined within each discipline. It further explores researchers’ perceptions of the challenges and future of scholarly publishing, enriched by a qualitative analysis of the final section of the survey, which focuses on the ethical debate surrounding the commodification of science.
In addition, the project aims to conduct a study of the publication and knowledge circulation profiles of researchers affiliated with Uruguay’s National System of Researchers (SNI), in the framework of other comparative projects at CECIC that explore alternative data sources such as academic CV platforms. In this case, the research team has access to the full body of publications recorded in the CVUy system.
By combining the survey with the study of publications, the project contributes to the development of a novel approach that combines sociology and bibliometrics, a field currently expanding at the global level. The survey will provide insights into individual perceptions and strategies, while bibliometric analysis of the CVUy platform will be linked to OpenAlex to generate a snapshot of researchers’ outputs, their accessibility, and associated APC costs. Additionally, this analysis will help inform public agencies about the presence of predatory journals and thus has a practical component in providing evidence to support a national policy of non-commercial open access.