Patricio Pantaleo is Keeping Tabs on Open Research

Patricio Pantaleo -

Patricio Pantaleo is a freelance open science advisor and web developer in Latin America with expertise in Open Journal Systems, Open Monograph Press, and Crossref. He specialises in academic journals, cultural projects and e-learning and advises and collaborates with academic journals and publishers to develop their open practices and improve their visibility.


A simple look at my browser shows that I have left many Open Tabs about different topics. Novels, courses on Linux, classical philosophy, history and communication are part of my heterodox browsing history.
When it comes to selecting which of these Open Tabs I would like to share in this post, which I was kindly invited by Gimena del Río Riande to write, I choose the ones that have lately brought me the most attention and that I have used in some way in my work as a consultant at Paideia Studio with different Spanish-speaking journals and editorial teams.

  • Saurabh Khanna, Jon Ball, Juan Pablo Alperin, John Willinsky; Recalibrating the scope of scholarly publishing: A modest step in a vast decolonization process. Quantitative Science Studies 2022; 3 (4): 912–930. https://doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00228

This is an article recently published by the Public Knowledge Project (PKP) staff in Quantitative Science Studies. The paper is an essential starting point for learning about the main metrics on the impact of Open Journal Systems (OJS) on current scientific communication. The study is based on the data obtained by the ‘beacon’ activated in each of the PKP software installations and which allows the collection of data on their operation and installation.

This proposal, however, does not stop at a statistical account of the use of the software. With reported data, it questions the validity of the discourse that seeks to restrict the communication of scientific knowledge to the major publishing groups or to the large hegemonic centers of production and distribution of knowledge. The article takes up fundamental categories of analysis that deserve to be articulated with hard data, such as the Global South and decolonization. These categories become valid when considering the development of research and scientific communication in regions considered peripheral to the great centers of production.

  • Khanna, Saurabh; Raoni, Jonas; Smecher, Alec; Alperin, Juan Pablo; Ball, Jon; Willinsky, John, 2022, "Details of publications using software by the Public Knowledge Project", https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/OCZNVY, Harvard Dataverse, V3, UNF:6:S5bWHIQbWKz9BDaEGMmxrw== [fileUNF]

When reading the previous article, I could not refrain from reviewing and recommending the dataset on which the research is based and which is the data collected by PKP software. This dataset not only covers OJS data but also data from other applications developed by PKP such as OMP and OPS. You can also access methodological notes for interpreting the csv file, a summary of the main csv data and a PDF presentation on OJS. At the same time, I must also mention that the main csv is extensive and to interpret it and to achieve interesting graphs Saurabh Khanna also provides a series of codes to run in R and that so that others we can adapt and reuse the data with a little R knowledge.

An updated reading of this dataset shows, for example, that by 2021 there were 34,114 active JUOJS (journals that use OJS), i.e., that they published at least 5 articles per year. As the beacon continues to collect data, the dataset is updated every certain period of time and journals add or remove articles in previous issues, it is expected that this number is not static but varies according to other mentions of the same variable (Huskisson & Casas, 2023).

Among the tabs I had opened to read, there was the 2017 Mexico Declaration in favor of the Latin American non-commercial open access ecosystem, co-signed by LATINDEX, REDALYC, CLACSO and IBICT. The declaration encourages journals, editorial boards, and other Latin American and global actors to use the CC-BY-NC-SA license to distribute scientific and scholarly works. Undoubtedly, the declaration sets an important precedent for the debate on what we understand as Open Access in Latin America and what role the different actors play in the region’s publishing production.
In summary, it recommends a license with great impact in a region that not only believes in knowledge as a public good but also requires two other important factors: to encourage alternative forms of production and financing to the state as a source of genuine development; and practices of editorial professionalization that reward the enormous work done ad honorem by thousands of academic and institutional editors in the region.

This reading led me to the relationship between the Open Access movement and the distribution licenses in the English-speaking tradition. Peter Suber's Open Access is a book that clarifies many of the a priori on which to start when thinking about Open Access and its forms of interpretation and practice. Although it is possible to find different historical and social roots in the conception of the public, the state and commercial practices between Anglo-Saxon and Latin idiosyncrasies, Peter Suber specifically mentions CC licenses:

The CC Attribution license (CC-BY) describes the least restrictive sort of libre OA after the public domain. It allows any use, provided the user attributes the work to the original author. This is the license recommended by the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) and the SPARC Europe Seal of Approval program for OA journals. I support this recommendation, use CC-BY for my blog and newsletter, and request CC-BY whenever I publish in a journal. (https://openaccesseks.mitpress.mit.edu/pub/9i5oj5l9/release/2?from=25495&to=25960)

Finally, I would like to mention a note on the Internet Archive blog about the recent lawsuit filed against the Internet Archive and its practice of lending digital books. It is worth noting that the lawsuit was brought by a group of publishers who felt affected by this practice, but Internet Archive's digital book loan was intended to continue a historical activity of libraries. Beyond this, the lawsuit filed was against it and I hope that this brief post by the founder will be a stimulus to spread a discussion that concerns digital rights and the dissemination of knowledge in current times.

For the next installment of Open Tabs I am tagging Ricardo Pimenta, researcher at Brazilian Institute of Information for Science and Technology, and professor at Information Science Post-Graduation Program IBICT/UFRJ. Ricardo also directs the Laboratório em Rede de Humanidades Digitais and I'm sure his readings will enrich the section.