Scientific information and open access: what direction is Brazil taking?

Abstract

The Open Access-OA movement, also known as the Free Access movement, has introduced new alternatives for researchers to access scientific information. As a result, new tools for disseminating scientific production have been introduced, such as digital repositories and open access scientific journals. This movement began in 2001. After more than a decade, there are now more than 2,600 digital repositories in various parts of the world. Brazil took part in this experience from the outset, monitoring and developing similar initiatives. The country currently has 83 digital repositories and almost a thousand open access scientific journals. This article analyzes and discusses the Brazilian position on OA in a global context, based on concepts that define a digital repository, an institutional repository, a thematic repository and a central repository. It evaluates the participation of Brazilian Institutional Repositories (IRs) in the Directory of Open Access Repositories (OPDOAR), illustrating the types of documents registered in digital repositories. It presents the initiatives of the OA and the Brazilian Institute of Information in Science and Technology - IBICT, as well as their level of evolution.Debate the reasons why we are preventing university libraries from building and maintaining their institutional repositories, as well as two researchers. It discusses the implementation of two Brazilian institutional repositories, as well as the difficulties encountered by teaching and research institutions, focusing on some important points in the evolution of these repositories.