Mapping the Open Science landscape in the Global South

thank you everybody for joining us today really excited to have you here for our second e life Global South committee for open science webinar uh topic being mapping the open science landscape in the global South um I'm Shane olop I'm eif's publishing development manager and it's my pleasure to welcome you today please feel free to introduce yourself in the chat uh it's always interesting to know who you are where you're from dialing in from and any other Associated information you'd like to share uh welcome today so as context eif is a nonprofit organization that operates a platform to improve all aspects of research communication by encouraging and recognizing the most responsible behaviors in research while a new model has potential to make publishing a more inclusive Enterprise offering the benefits of scholarly review while giving authors more agency in the publishing process we share a link now to the one-year Milestone uh about which you can read more about our publishing model including milestones and findings from the first year uh but in order to fulfill the potential of our new model we need coordinated efforts and to hear from the communities most impacted by the inequity in the status quo to this end we've established the eif global South committee for open science to learn directly from our peers in the global South so we can strive to overcome these barriers uh in the pursuit of an inclusive Equitable and more diverse scientific Communications today we're joined by the committee's founding members and three esteemed guest panal ists who will discuss how policy socioeconomic factors cultural context and interdisciplinary collaborations Define and shape their open SCI landscape in the global South following the panelist presentations and discussion we'll invite questions and comments from our audience but first I'll start with a bit of housekeeping uh so during the webinar we ask that you please be respectful honest inclusive accommodating appreciative and open to learning from everyone else we ask that you do not attack demain disrupt Terra or threaten others or encourage such behavior and if you ever feel uncomfortable or unwelcome on any of these webinar email via Eli safety teampro mail.com we reserve the right to ask anyone to leave and also deny access to a subsequent webinar so that we can continue to improve upon our webinars we' appreciate if you could complete our brief four question form which you can access from the link or by scanning the QR code with your smartphone camera and all that is left is for me to introduce Alo uh to welcome today's guest speakers and introduce our topic thank uh thank you Shane welcome everybody thank you for joining us uh I'm delighted to welcome my fellow committee members as well as uh Our Guest panelist I was just have say some brief words about the action of of the committee the the El life Global South committee for open science was initially formed in 2023 it brings together researchers from different countries and territories that share characteristics with regard to social economics politics and uh limited representation in the scientific space and it tries to provide a work a way to to to give a greater visibility to this region so the committee currently has representatives from uh Thailand from uh Ronda from Argentina from Nigeria Kenya Bangladesh Indonesia and Brazil which is myself uh and we have just finished recruiting additional three members will be announced in January uh and uh we have been working for a little more than a year in trying to to to think of different ways to to increase the visibility of open science in the global South and the visibility of the global South in the open science discussion and I think one thing we have learned from a personal perspective at least is how little actually know about what's happening in in other regions of the world I think each of us in the committee uh is knowledgeable about their own regions but really I mean the road is very large and there's multiple initiatives in different parts of the global South uh they're sometimes convergent sometimes inun and I think one of our main priorities that that we have perceived is that we have to try to map these initiatives and make us more visible towards each other which is one of the reasons we're promoting this webinar so uh we have done a previous webinar in the middle of the year uh which was focused on Grassroots communities promoting open science you can watch this in YouTube uh the link is here and should be in the chat as well uh and today we're actually bringing in people who have been involved in more institutional initiatives concerning Open Access open data open education in different regions of the world in order to extend the discussion about how we can best join forces to promote open science and to actually make ourselves more visible uh so I'm the your first guest who is Nita nasar she has led strategic initiatives at unet which is a network under the Thousand Ministry of higher education science research and Innovation which Fosters educational Partnerships and uh expand to expand digital resources and learning networks uh she has been head of learning resources at and she leverages her expertise to enhance research accessibility and strengthen tha's Li networks supporting collaboration Innovation and accessible resources for academic and research communities in Thailand so Nita uh welcome and feel feel feel free to start whenever okay thank you uh thank you for having me here uh first of all I have to uh inform that I'm um sick today I have a sore thought but I will try to do my best okay okay um I have to introduce myself a little bit right uh I start my career in education almost 20 years ago as a computer teacher and I later become a full-time lecturers at universities and have some experience with uh corporates in Thailand and what's L me here working as a head of learning resources uh kis un under the ministry of higher education science research and Innovation Thailand as from um the introduction okay okay about tiis um tiis it's establishment in 1990 um Tes department has been a Cornerstone to in driving research and knowledge dissemination across Thailand our mission has been all uh sorry our mission has always been empowered research and education for focusing on centralized ICT management fostering uh collaboration and leveraging Technologies in to enhance efficiency to promote uh knowledge development uh through the range of diverse services such as reference database Union catalog or UC uh I thesis Auto and also um TI Digital Collection or TDC we have uh consistently provide vital support to the academic and research communities these services are more than tools they are Catalyst for collaborations Innovative and Society progress so um at tyus we focus on our key pillars that drive our mission and impact first uh we serve as the center of in information and communication Technologies for research providing a centralized Hub that empowers research with Cutting Edge ICT tools and resources second we are commit to promotion and support of collaboration research and resources fostering Partnerships andamp amplify the reach of effectiveness of research efforts and third we prioritize the pro promotion and support of Knowledge Management ensuring that Innovation and learning are at for font of what we do and finally uh we emphasize the application of ICT for organization management and dissemination to network members stream streamlining operations and delivering valuable insight and resources to our Network so so through these um pillars we work strengthen with the academic and research landscape Connecting People ideas and ins institutions across Thailand and Beyond highis has proudly established itself as the national hub for information and communication Technologies research serving as a cenal resource be managed and provide essential ICT tools that empower research studies across this the country uh we have uh five Services okay I will um start with the first one reference database um we serve a whal hub for member registration providing seamless access to electronic academic research database services for higher education institutions currently we offer access to n comprehensive database supporting the research needs of 0 government higher education institutions across the country second one is Union catalog we offer database system that complies biographic list of uh Library resources following International standards uh specifically Mark 20 one the system Empower uses uh for simple search features allowing them to easily search for the check and availability of the Library resources next one is I thesis we provide a comprehensive data management system designed to support the preparation of thesis and visitations uh this system include um pism detection mechanism to ensuring the Integrity of the academic work and streamlines the management of doctoral and Masters level thesis and research projects okay we also have uh the software which is called autol software automate Library we provide um this system spe specific designed for Thai higher education institutions our goal is to reduce the cost um associate with purchasing and maintaining Library software and currently we provide green systems that have already been successful Implement in our 65 locations helping institutions optimize their Library management efficiently and affordably and the last one is uh Tha Digital Collection or TDU um it's a our database serve as a comprehensive repository for higher education institu institutions it includes thesis research papers academics articles and uh even RS providing and um valuable resources for researchers Educators and students okay and last year uh we were honored to receive a certificate from Asia Pacific Advanced Network um to recognizing our efforts in Connecting People cultures research and educations and uh we set this this award as a new Benchmark for Tha Library Network we are commit to sharing it uh to our Cooperative libraries in coming year so we pass these Awards and want to encourage users to take pride um in utilizing our service and share uh valuable feedback to recognize the Excellence and uh we give the awards to uh our networks following this cat atories uh for UC catalog we give the awards to the top three universities with the highest number of Il or inter Library loans within the system and top three universities that have consistently contribute the most resources to the system and for CDC orai digital collections we Awards to the top three universities with the highest number of the documents downloads showcasing exceptional resources usage so um these Awards celebrate the dedication of Our member institu institutions and highlight the active engagement in advancing research and education so at Tha list uh we remain dedicate to supporting the academic and research communities through our service resources and Innovative platforms we are constantly working to improve the way knowledge is share manage and disseminate and your engagement is vital to our continued success I would like to um extend my heartful thank you to all of the partners and members and all the um participations in this um um webinar your collaboration collaboration and feedback are valueable for us in order to moving forward together thank you once again to for having me here today and looking forward to see the impact of our collaborative efforts in next further development together thank you thank you nid uh Jak can we have a our slides back so uh we move on now to Susan fman Susan is a director of The Scholar republication unit at the Academy of Sciences in South Africa and she has been responsible for driving the open science agenda to raise the visibility discoverability and accessibility of South African scol Journal and improve the quality of South Africa research output she has received the electronic publishing trust award for her her contributions to the promotion of Open Access in developing countries uh she has uh been the co-chair of the important in combating predatory journals and conferences and she has received recognition for her role in establishing SE South Africa platform in South Africa uh which is of course an initiative in collaboration with Latin America which we're very proud of so welcome Susan U Flo is yours and thank you Al um for the opportunity and good afternoon then to all the colleagues it's afternoon with me if it's good morning or good evening that in in your place well we'll be greeted anyway some going to change the discourse a little bit you will see that the title is open signs um and Open Access in Africa so I'm going to take a a continental view on all these issues um and I think that's also very important sort of in going forward and promoting in open signs so we must realize and we must recognize all of the tensions that's currently in Colony publishing um for instance the commercial pressures in scholly publishing and the pro The Profit Motors of Publishers and high subscription cost the monetization of knowledge then of course the whole push for the Open Access movement for accessibility and also to have a look at the business models um the article processing charges especially in developing countries where this is quite a challenge um and this is quite on top of the debate of researchers in um de developing countries and then of course the funders role to incentivize um and and to promote um Open Access license and then of course all this have an impact on the researchers um as I said the publication f um the equity concerns and namely that the commercial models might disadvantage researchers from developing um countries considering the underfunded institutions that might lead to unequal participation in global scholarship and then the incentives and the recognition to participate in openness when it comes to um promotion and the evaluation of researchers as such and then on the technological and social considerations front um the emerging Technologies of digital platforms and of course AI power tools um that can support us in research um publication and output uh through peer review efficient peer review streamline up access processes and provide perhaps new funding me mechanisms through collaborative platforms and then the societal expectations where um there's a pressure on governments and institutions to ensure research is freely available so as you can see this is a whole ecosystem of pressures that forces us to look openly towards research output and the participation um in Global Research Etc would just like to mention and just confirm that um although we here at the tip of um Africa we all take cognizance of the um up S UNESCO recommendations um I always say that I have been in open science Open Access since 2002 and I think for the first time we are contextualizing the debate um much better um the rhetoric around open open signs Open Access is better positioned um to show the world that they can benefit in just opening up as such so that's why we like the UNESCO recommendations quite a bit also because it takes place in a very particular value system of quality and integrity connective benefit Equity fairness and diversity and exclusiveness um but that the principles sort of um anchor all these values in practicing open science principles um also the international science Council has a very good definition of open science and they put it under three pillars so to speak Open Access publishing open DI data and open to society and this resonates very well with us being at the Academy of Sciences of South Africa uh because we believe that the results um should really support Humanity in achieving sustainable and an equitable life on planet Earth just want to say then broadly if we look at Africa it is very important that the that the um open science policies policies sorry um should be set in a broader government policy context of socio economic development that takes complicance of global issues that codified within sustainable development goals just want to mention and just say that South Africa has started about in um 2018 already also with some dialogues um under the um multilateral bilateral um of the sa European Union Dialogue on open signs and we came up with a particular framework um to advance open science um in South Africa as well but um I'm sorry just to mention that it has not been approved and passed by parliament yet but it's at quite an advanced stage um for South Africa and then of course um we also look at other policies um being published internationally to see if we do align um and and whether we are all subscribing then to the same um principles and value systems as such we're not staying behind as as Africa continent we are within the African Union there's a digital transformation strategy that was crafted a data policy framework in the sharing of data between countries um it's a highly problematic area within Africa because there's so uh many disparities between the different um rules and regulations of countries so it is important that we all function from the same premise when we also share data and that we align with European Union as well as with um United States um regulatory sort of framework um currently the African open SS project which is a very important project that you should take cognizance of is driving through the sadic um a regional SDI policy um for open signs as such and I think that's very important to see the movement that's happening already on the continent as well as the artificial intelligence there are some um intelligence strategies and artificial intelligence strategies happening um the criticism and the point that I want to point out is that it does not address research per se so we'll have to have a look at that but also in Regional um forums um open science is also promoted and highly um recommended in um do in official documents Etc which I think is all important from a policy perspective as we move along so if we look at policies in Africa we can see that the blue part is is the one that is um sort of it has been crafted but it's it's sitting on the desks of um the parliamentarians to finally approve it those in the gray the dark gray is in development or under discussion um so you can see the countries are starting to um talk about it and the only country on the Africa continent is Ethiopia who has passed um a open It's actually an open access on policy but they also included open data as as um to be recognized um when talking about um Open Access Etc so that's quite significant as such um so there is movement but extremely slow um we must say but does that deter us from actually um looking at open signs and Open Access and does it hold us back from our initiatives no it doesn't because I think we're clear about the policy and sort of the framework in which open size should happen and we just drive forward regardless of not having a um policy in place for the country um as if has been in this space since 2009 and we realize it is time to actually showcase what we're doing and we started to formulate it in an open science policy and which you can see right here also in line again not only with national imperatives but also the continental and international imperatives as well so there's huge alignment to um all these documentation so like any open access initiative starts it normally starts with institutional repositories um so little bit um disappointed sort of as we started with major projects U namely there was Data D all um of African thesis and dissertations which was Federated under one platform that seems to um actually come to a stop because of a lack of support of um funding and leadership in that space But now we can see again that the African um African Association of univers ities is again starting to launch the Africa wide University Research Archive of research being done in South Africa and of course afria is doing some major Works in creating pre repositories um for uh for authors to deposit their work in um and then to receive um up and peer review on the particular platform so um you can see that there's also quite um some happening right there Then in terms of the directory of Open Access journals you can see that the footprint is growing very slowly and there's a huge Drive within Africa to have the journals included into the director Open Access journals just want to mention that in South Africa in Cape Town there is a open SS um SL Diamond Open Access Journal Summit taking place has been for the whole week and um this is quite a problem atic phenomena because um we can see that many of the other African journals are actually being um disqualified in the in this directory because they're not adhering to standards so there's a huge space for training and advocacy and to see that sou that African journals actually comply to the criteria of doaj so um there's a lot of work to be done there and um that will certainly help us with a Open Access journals on the continent to get it of a particular quality then just want to point out in response to the open research Europe platform um repository um there's open research Africa that this is a um a pre-print repository but it is subjected to subscription prices which is also quite difficult for researchers from Africa to actually participate in and we'll have to have look at new ways in how we can participate in this very important platform um as such then AAR um has this pre repository SLE just want to mention that um the application or the depositing of preprints very significantly across academic fields and um geographical regions in Africa specifically so there's very limited evidence as well at the moment regarding the number of pre preprints posted and used so that is still another field that that that needs um some further development if we look at data sharing this is a very interesting field um what we try to do here is to actually plot um the different um activities um Open Access activities open repositories activities um on the Africa sort of map and you can see there are very there's a lot of decentralized activities um going on um so that is actually quite problematic uh because they are not United in one platform or under one sort of initiative and drive so to speak so again these countries actually Backle to showcase the work that they have done what is also important is to note that only two data repositories as a assigned C trust seal and that we we should work for and strive towards um the core trust seal that we can showcase trust at repositories two very interesting very large collaborations in Africa which is um really a game changer um not only for Africa but for the rest of the world is the H3 Africa human um her heridity and health in Africa it's a genomics research in Africa with genomic data and data science um just to collect this data to um put them more centrally available to um analyze them and to visualize them is is is quite a tedious task but despite these challenges this particular collaboration has managed to work around the different challenges that the countries are um receiving and this is a critical and a cool um database to geonomics research in Africa particularly Africa also has a very particular genomic pool which is not present in the rest of the world and of course if we talk about languages African languages um the data sets um you can see there are some um drives as well to take this further and collaborations um again the international science Council plays a huge and a mammoth role in driving collaborative research in Africa which is also a very important part in in what we do as if I started with a a personal the personal protction sorry personal um um protection of of personal information when sharing data and um this is the one that we're trying to um also get support from gdpr and from um from the state trans disciplinary research is also in the upcoming um quite a complex way of doing research putting the teams together and ensure that you have the right person on the particular team but certain needs not lacking and then as Academy we also um have just launch a statement from the network of African academ sciencey in Africa on open science where we also promote um open signs Etc just want to see I think I am at the end um of my presentation um I just yeah it would not move on so I think I'm going to stop right here onavo so welcome and and I'm passing it over and back to you there uh thank you Susan so uh I'll next move to Washington uh Segundo uh who's our fan panelist is from Brazil uh his basis a presan Institute of information Science and Technology i b uh his uh actually holds a degree in mathematics but has worked in information science for most of his life he's technical coordinator in the area of treatment analysis and dissemination of scientific information at his institution and he uh coordinates projects commed in the areas of open science uh he's the leader of the Brazilian scientific research ecosystem laboratory and research uh and he's also the representative of vibi in initiatives in which we we collaborate such as the open government partnership uh compromis for science in Brazil and the Brazilian repr bu Network so do so have you here Washington Flo is yours thank youu uh thank you all for for the invitation of participating of this this Workshop this webinar so I start um the discussion um with the um reflection uh for example we we have um a problem uh in in in Psychology in Psychotherapy that is how uh when you you we need to to take medicine uh a psychoactive uh to solve a a psycho problem or when we need to uh do Psychotherapy so uh the the moment that we we are uh living I think it's we are using much more uh medicine than uh doing Psychotherapy I I I'm I'm doing analogy with the the use of subscriptions uh the the payment of apcs and the commercial scies sciencey that is very strong uh nowadays um in the opposite side we have the diamond sustainable and open science as a public good so and it's much less expensive than the commercial science it's there are lot of studies that show show that so the problem is that we need to to transform this this communication system uh from the perspective of the commercial uh uh um way to the open siiz and public good way uh this is was this is uh be braams it's a researcher of the University of wburg uh he um in N 20 uh 2019 uh he says that we need to to do a reform in the infrastructure that we have in the the communication system so we need to change the the the money that we are uh in investing wasting uh it's the the most uh uh the most uh correct way to to say that the money that we are wasting in subscriptions in apcs and reports that we are uh uh getting from the the commercial um Point uh to uh invested in our own infrastructures of communication in the the to to to promote the the circulation of the information uh Beyond these infrastructures uh that are financing by mainly U by the government of the countries so my institutions institution is the brazilan Institute of information science technology uh it has the the mission of promote competence development of resources uh and information infr infrastructure in science in technology for the production socialization integration of scientific technological technological knowledge um so the mission of my my institutions is a government uh institution uh is um right uh to the the to build this infrastructure to to mainly in the Science and Technology uh uh um field uh and we where we have a strong focus in open science uh since the end of the '90s we we have uh a very strong um work in actions to Foster open science so uh we are working in creating these infrastructures um and to to Foster policies uh to that that are important to sustain uh our uh open science in Brazil and also in the Latin America America region uh we are working mainly on research data repositor scientific journals open scientific journals persistent identifiers and also um in supporting the the the new evaluation models for science uh and new matrixes for for Science and uh which is uh open science open science commonly is um exhibited as a as a umbrella uh but it could could be uh thought as a a puzzle with different fields of of actions but I think that open science is more uh like a inter intersection of different fields so we have uh a lot of fields that are intersected in the the the the the K of this intersection uh could be open signs and also I like this definition of open SCI from John tenant uh that unfortunately uh died in 2020 uh that open science is just science don't right so uh to implement uh and to collaborate with International initiatives Regional International initiatives uh we have uh following some the working groups and other um ways to to to participate uh in UNESCO K that is the Coalition for advancing research assess assessment and also the confederation of Open Access her posteries and finally La referencia that is a Latin Latin American uh network of open science it's a network of uh 11 countries and also Spain 11 countries from Latin America and is also Spain from from Europe and Portugal is has also some collaboration with life fin uh Brazil is part of life Fin and um bya our uh work with life fin so the main infrastructures that we have uh in big and in Brazil uh I think um I will I will talk about from the perspective of iic uh in open science are uh the bdd that that is the Brazilian Digital Library of it dissertations uh osbr that is the research um um the open uh research uh portal in in Brazil that has uh research data and also uh Publications is in dissertations uh we also have the dris that's the K research information system for Brazil um and also uh director of um journals Brazilian journals uh that that has the name Ming we also have uh an action of building a data Lake for processing scientific data that has the name Laguna and also um per identifier that that is decentralized uh that we we had uh the name dark so bdd uh has more than 140 digital libraries uh it has more or less one million of these dissertations uh that is aggregated by this portal it's a network indeed uh that has the the metadata from the digital libraries that are maintained by the organizations the the universities and research institutes in Brazil um so bdd um it's a very traditional uh database for T dissertations in Brazil uh and we we also have wbr that is a an extension of bdtd that Aggregates not only tations but articles uh and books uh book chapters and uh also uh research data dat research data sets so we have more than five million uh digital objects in this uh search portal that is uh that are harvested by a via 1.5 ,000 uh soures so from this soures as the searches are digital repositories uh digital libraries um research data repositories and we have uh 17 search data hosers in the network uh we have also uh around 1,000 and and and 100 uh open journals uh and the the the the the the rest is are repositories and G libraries of te dissertations uh we also have a mechanism that certificates the the Declaration of uh te dissertations and the our main um platform of curriculum of research curriculum uh this certificate is is provided by wbr via our uh C or national Cris that is BR Cris this uh could be uh yeah you could follow the the the the the the seal that's it's it's exposed in a on the sitation until the O be registry record in in in the portal and also uh accessing the the full text in the the local digital library of report or or hpo so this is our Cris um at National level H is is a project that took uh several years but finally in 2023 we we launched it um it's a a portal that H allows uh to search for Publications uh people journals organizations patents um courses uh postgraduate courses and also uh research groups and software uh it's a graph it's a it's a database based on graphs and uh it it allows us to to generate a lot of indicators uh and dashboards that could helps uh the the evaluation of of Science and we also have this open uh information infrastructure in data Lake that has the name Laguna uh it's the data Lake that we are uh building to uh Foster uh the analysis of of uh research data and also uh over research uh about uh open research information uh to also to provide some um uh uh ways to to to to change the evaluation model that we have uh for for for science in Brazil uh this uh data data lake is using a local infrastructure and also um a WS uh uh infrastructure in Amazon so finally we have this um Ming it's a directory of journals in Brazil Brazilian journals it has more than 5,000 uh journals that that are mapped in the Brazilian context um it has a lot of metadata that describes these these journals uh and it allows us to to to U make some analysis about these journals in the Brazilian and in the international context and uh to finalize the my my my expose uh my Exposition is uh the doc it's a it's a per dig fire that we built over um de centralized network uh based on blockchain so this is in the first phase of uh the beta first phase uh it's it's already working uh and we are also um assigning some pits to her posters to to articles and things interations records that uh that are in Heros uh via ybr that we have presented so the idea is to have the the assigning of pets uh from all the the the the sources that you have inbr and uh it to have and to have a decentralized way of governance of this p network in the p is not only applied to to uh outputs of research but uh we want to apply it of any object of the uh research ecosystem uh organizations uh um um at least people and other resources other other agents in this ecosystem so perspectives we are expanding this open siiz infrastructure in Brazil uh and we want to disseminate the Brazilian um production in a more efficient way open open uh production uh into develop models and Technologies for for the development of Latin American and Global Sal and to reduce the dependence on Commercial platforms that you have and to create new scientific evaluation matrics and to promote Regional International collaboration in open science this is our perspective and the challenges is to have source of financing of this long-term projects uh and the technical technological difficults that we always have the limited human resources and mainly the lack of legalization of open science uh especially for for Public Funding research uh our our academic our academic culture is strongly based on traditional commercial sources and evaluation models in Brazil and also in Latin America it's a reality so that's it thank you very much for your potion uh thank you very much uh Washington so we're open for questions now you can send them there's a Q&A function uh which is called Q&A down here we also have uh the chat if you want to as the chat is a little bit more confusing but it works as well I see a single question at the moment uh which is from uh maxud to or to need it but I may extend this to the others as well so it's how open and accommodating are you to collaborating with developing countries what opportunities or potential AV for collaboration do you see in this context I think this is important question so like I think Nita and and and Washington particular have have uh have uh have shown multiple infrastructure initiatives within specific countries uh are this can this be made open to other countries I again I guess get back to Susan's point I mean there's like a lot of decentralized initiatives around Africa but no single platform so uh how do you see this I mean can you extend the initiatives in your countries uh elsewhere and uh if so how should we do this I think all three panelists can can pitch in on this starting with Nita perhaps oh okay uh thank you so much for the question I think my team will be um my team uh his the uh project manager of the TDC Tha Digital Collection the platform which just uh collect thesis and dissertations uh we'll be glad that uh uh you interested in us okay um um I don't know whether I can completely answer the questions Theory but I think um from my point getting the research recognized globally can open so um many opportunities for like researchers uh for like sharing ideas um sharing the title of the research which is which is impact for Society for um the global and uh we can use the tools as this platform like elif sign.org right to uh collaboration or to sharing the ideas among researchers or um institutions um yeah so that's that's my my point of view Washington Susan perhaps yeah I think it's it's very important to to share all the achievements that you have in terms of technology and also in terms of policies I think it's it's necessary to collaborate on it ver in a very strong way and um we are participating in this these forums like cor and Life to ensure it always um and we are very open to to share everything we are developing uh because we think that it's important to do that Susan um yes so so that that's an interesting question so within the cello Network um we collaborate with um Brazil and with all the um network connections in that particular platform um I mean there there's there such a lot of journals into that platform and um I just saw in the question and answer sort of boxes there's the one about MultiLing multilingualism um into publishing and and this particular platform serves as a very good example the Spanish is Portuguese there is Africans which is my home language um there's English there's Dutch there's German there's French into that particular platform but I think what is very important is that we all use the same standards and we all use the same softare so I think technologically it is really very possible is to collaborate and to work together the thing is just that we have to follow International standards to make them interoperable and I think that's where the the problem normally lies is that the interoperability of different systems and that is what we have to work towards to uh thank you I think Susan has already started to answer the the the second question here which was what's the importance of publishing research outcomes in languages other than English on one hand publishing in local languages May enhance the reach of the studies within local communities on the other hand these studies are virtually invisible to the international scientific Community what are views I think Susan has already answered the C might be a good model I think C has a lot of of Articles which are in multiple langu anges I'm not sure Washington or neita want to comment oh I think it's it's very important to to have this um translation of the Articles and other things in in multiple languages but I I think it's it's important also to keep the original language of the article uh for example like in Africa in Brazil and and Spanish uh countries that are Spanish spoken um uh but I think that it's important also to to have some automatic translation tools uh that are very fostered by by the E ia uh tools uh nowadays so we we want to to to implement some some translation automatic translation to to to to provide this more uh easy way and also um another important I think it I think it's is is to have some discovered uh systems that could uh recover not only uh English as a a main Lang main language a very very a very effective recovery of English but also other languag and and um until the the the language that don't use the Latin alphabet uh for for for recovering so it's important to have this multilinguism multilinguism in the systems uh and we need to to advance on that do you want to comment um I think there's a lot of um AI research that's help this language barrier problems these days yeah uh so next question here uh uh you all showed us examples of great platforms journals and initiatives from the global South uh so this person who is anonymous asks whether they are being widely adopted by local research communities or is there still some resistance due to the pressure to publishing journals from the global North and high impact factors I think Washington touched this on the end of his presentation maybe you can start yeah the problem is that we have um very old way of evaluate size and we need to EV make Evol Evolution and evolution that I think it's it's it's time to do that and uh I I I I think that are a lot of countries in institutions that are putting working on on this and we need to to to push it also in our region uh mainly Brazil because Brazil it's always the the the country that pushes the the the the the train in the Latin America I think and uh we in together with olavo and and other um important uh researchers in Brazil we are trying to do that uh with with some organizations in Brazil uh that are responsible for the evaluation of sici for example CIS that is the organization that make makes the evaluation of the the graduate programs The Graduate and postgraduate programs in Brazil uh it's it's a is starting to do a a change in the evaluation um but it's a process that I think it's very slow and we want to go faster but we need to to have patience to do that uh Susan want to comment just want to um concur with What U Washington has been saying you know especi especially in the open signs sort of remit of things the Reformation of of the research assessment system of course is also highing on our agenda it's a long process it moves very slow I think for us that was a breakthrough in South Africa is when our University of Road who is a small University but a high intensive research institution declared with other um universities on the globe that they will not support university rankings anymore and I can see part of their process is they starting to break down this notion to publish in journals bomb um with high impact factors um you know so yes it it is quite a process to change the research system especially research evaluation system but certainly it's on the agenda and there's a lot of work being done around that uh Nita um in in term of policy I can share that um um Thailand um we um have the Pol policy that allocate the budget for um among the university as the Clusters like uh we we um um we classify the university to be five clusters such as innovation um the universities that focus on support the society and others and we try to focus on um allocate the budget to um the university which is focus on the university ranking in order to um to make the budget uh efficiency yes uh yeah I I I mean just adding to this I think the tide has turn turned a bit in Brazil I think we're always slow to adapt and I think we've been chasing the global North in terms of evoluation for a long time but I think particularly because of the whole open science uh like exploitative APC like once the open science budget actually sorry the publishing budget actually shifted to researchers uh in for in the form of apcs I think people started seeing the bill and I think that has slowly led the research Community to realize we need change I think I think the last year or two in Brazil have been quite positive in a list acknowledging that we should uh be more supportive of of of local uh publish publishing initiatives and and and and less dependent on on high impact factor Jers uh so next question is from Chris Wood uh congratulations for all these impressive initiatives the M of open science practices are AR he's a director of at a national facility but uh he says that it's obvious that everything we were doing will be better if implemented as an institution wide policy framework and even better as a national policy implementation I mean so things work better and work in more in scale when they're uh up in the letter but he says every time we try to take the argument up the letter we get zero interest nobody sees a point nobody wants to pay and uh he says the initiatives presented today clearly had a number of stakeholders involved including institutional and governmental actors and he ask how did these initiatives Reach This level of organization uh bottom up approaches really cannot get very far they quickly reach limits of cost and scalability so how do you connect these various bottom up initiatives to the top to make their more more institutional idity at the national level Susan you want to start um yes and and I suppose it will differ from country to Country and you're absolutely right Chris youa it did need a lot of institutional and governmental actors um societies um um University South Africa Etc to make this work but I think what was a breakthrough is from the Canam point of view is we did a consensus study um and the title of the study was a strategic approach to scholarly publishing in South Africa so it showcased in what bad State the scholarly journals were at the time in South Africa what did they mean what did they contribute remember in South Africa we get um um we get funding in publishing in accredited journals so you know that also quite a a driving factor and and the purpose of the research output policy was not only to drive um output that that that should increase but also the quality of these journals and when we released this report we came up with a number of recommendations of one very pertinent recommendation was is to go up nexx and to look at centralization of all these activities where this could be driven um from a central point and at that point also the Academy of Sciences took a decision by its Council that um ASF will be the implementing agency of all this work so that has help us incredibly to mobilize and to strategize around now sort of the next label of open signs um in the country um it it's not to say that it's not without a battle a daily battle and continuous discussion and um advocacy and lobbying um but certainly that strategic approach that study to understand what's happening to South African journals and how poor they were way back in 2008 and we if we evaluate them now we can see a huge Improvement in their quality and standardization and following standards best PR practices Etc of course yellow Brazil is also quite a big driving Factor behind the standards and upping the game on on a continuous and a fiveyear basis thank you uh Nita okay um uh um for the for the quality of the the research or the journals it's um the requirements um um in like almost every uh academics in order to um um uh in order to apply for uh the the uh Professor carrier in academic Fields but uh our challenge is in Thailand is uh we have so many research from all the universities but we would like to uh connect the researchers to the business sectors to implement some ideas or to connect to startups and and um to maybe to um connect to the research that uh researchers that which uh I mean which uh title which uh what what what they need to do to the research uh is a challenge for Thailand right now to like not um to collaborate with uh business sectors and like all the partners or the like stakeholders not only in academic Fields yeah Washington do you want to comment I mean touching on the example cell which I think again has been a successful initiative which has moved up might be I mean we're neither of us work at yell but I think if you can comment on that yeah I think it's a very impressive intive that you we had at the end of the the 90s as well and uh I think it's we need to to invest in C and to promote it at a more uh inclusive um platform for for journals of not only for Brazil but of of all only for all the the the c network and uh and I think that the work we have we are doing via uh ogp the open govern partnership it's also a way to to promote um Democratic discussion on it and to evolve all the high high level uh uh directors of all the Brazilian institutions uh I think it's a this is a way also to to to have a awareness of of uh the importance of this discussion and the higher level uh uh uh people that want that make the decisions of of uh implementing policies uh at the national level so I think we need to to contining this way to to to promote the this this awareness of the importance what we are doing yeah yeahp may be an example I just just explaining to everybody I mean people may not feel for me but like the open government partnership is a is a international initiative I think has over 70 countries in which uh government entities and the Civil Society collaborate to set a few uh a few goals for open government in general and in Brazil I think we have managed to put open science within the open government scope for the last three plans so that actually creates uh uh compromises on a national level that that that commitments on a national level that countries should aspire to and that gives the opportunity for a lot of people from the Civil Society as well to as well to to comment so if this happens in your country if your country is committed to the open government partnership uh there are periodic calls for themes and topics within open government and you can certainly insert open science in that in terms to to to to try to to get higher up the lad we have done that I think that has been successful so next question is from uh to students specifically from ag3 Africa's experience in building data sharing capacity and consensus what are some best practices suggestions for other fields with established standards interoperability already um I would certainly say to start off with stakeholder engagement understand who are those organizations that will be partnering with you um secondly understand the problems that they might have not only with Gathering by recording and to upload perhaps the data to a central place um and definitely sort of um work in a collaborative way with each other um listen to each other that this was very important this particular project is to understand what the problems are and to find solutions for them because the problems were on different levels especially on connectivity on computer capacity um on um availability of of um the internet Etc so sometimes it's very um um very technical um almost problems that that they would occur and you have to get some roundabouts like that and then work towards the different standards being um failed uh Etc also recognize that each country functions in its own framework Year and that you have to honor and respect the laws in that particular country especially when it comes to data sharing and if you share in it how should you share it and especially in the bionet um um framework is where there are some personal information also attached to that data the sensitivity around it and then of course very important is to ensure that the data is always available for that particular country and that we do not practice any helicop excuse me helicopter signs is where researchers leave a particular country that take all the data all the visualizations and Analysis with them and Africa doesn't have access to their own data so there must be fairness Equity equality also embedded in the sharing of um these this data set Etc and by visualizing and making the results um then available thanks uh do the committee have any questions we have ISU Max Mercury nto to Rose uh I can start I think Susan touch on and and and oh Mark sorry you can start thank you sorry um I was just wondering when we when we look at the open access when we are mapping and doing things like that do we also check to see what are the other uh elements within that open access structure uh that exist that are still acting as barriers I'm talking about the charges the apcs and if we can also see how we can uh not necessarily regulate but see how we can be able to make it into something which is manageable because many we talk about Open Access but when when you look at the apcs they're too expensive so you still can't really publish yes you can publish and your work will be visible but we we are not able to to to afford to publish so maybe that's something to to think about Susan would you like to start um Mercury I just want to respond and say yes you're absolutely right that is a continuous battle but that's also very important where consortiums Library consortiums come into play is where they actually negotiate for transformative agreements where they use the monies in the system through subscription models to actually Remodel and to reapply them to allow for um let be call it almost a freeo publish free article processing charges so it's a whole ecosystem and that we must realize and and um we must not see these debates in in isolation from each other because they're all plug into each other to in the end actually constitute open signs but it's a very important point it is still a problem um there's slow progress on the African Contex in terms of um artical processing charges there has been more progress in South Africa because of the huge subscriptions we pay um but I know that there are initiatives in in Africa particularly where they work and and operate like transformative agreements towards Open Access Etc is Washington G momentary yes uh nid you want to comment okay um I agree with Susan um to to work as a library consultant because um in Thailand we uh uh we did that for um the reference database I mean if uh you have seen my presentations uh we provide a lot of uh reference database online such as e iple e sprinkling oh sorry can I can I set the name uh to 80 government institutions universities uh and also we assist uh Public University I mean private universities uh for like help them negotiation with the um publes also uh ISU thank you uh thank you to all the speakers uh for the wonderful uh maing of the global South and with respect to open science I'm going to direct uh my question to Susan uh I mean you also kind of uh highlighted my interest again on the issue of policies you know when you look at Africa particularly you'll see the great a bit of diversity we have in terms of the depth of adoption you know with respect to policies for example when you you look at the numbers of those who even have that discussion going on just just a handful of them and then when you also compare that with you know the countries that have you know the the higher you know higher number of um outputs in terms of knowledge output I mean Publications for example like Nigeria like South Africa like Egypt is just one out of three of them that have a policy that is actually working so I'm I'm looking at you know uh someone mentioned about you know bottom top approach or to bottom approach you know what do you think that has that is actually that has been the issue with respect to policies from the institutional level to the National level even to the Continental level we've seen walks across a life sense working even UNESCO you know trying to bring everybody together but something seems not to be working I don't know if you ask me I may say diversity but what do you think I want to see your perspective with respect to you know policy uh in countries and in the continent as they whole I think um what is important is that you know which levels should we start with the policies um I I think at the way back when we started with Open Access we advocated for institutional Open Access policies and that sort of paved the way for governmental policies and raising Awareness on a much higher level um about the open signs um secondly I think you you need a couple of people leaders prominent researchers in in different fields that would start lobbying um for open signs and start discussing also with government um this this opportunities of open signs and the possibilities of um of policies and then we must not underestimate the roles ofies of Sciences in the different countries because you know they are they are positioned to inform government about evidence-based studies um consensus studies policies um Etc so so that's another Avenue that that one could Tye is is the academies of Sciences um we must also remember that research is not funded in all the countries on the Africa continent and that's the biggest problem so there's a system um project going on it's called the science um um science granting council's initiative so that is to establish funding agencies to fund research in a particular country those that initiative is very important because it also makes a case forem for um for research funds within a particular country and as soon as you put those building block blocks in place then the situation becomes more conducive um to adopting and listening to the lobbyists who advocates for for open science Ethiopia has followed the South African model very closely and they have a very strong Academy in their country and that Academy has a lot of influence and profile within government which I think is also important that relationship is is also so important how you position yourself um in terms of government committing thy I hope that's helpful that's just a few ideas uh Nita any thoughts on that okay um I agree with Susan um about the um maybe um the the policy need to uh be support for the researchers by but if for in Thailand we our challenge is we have to um show the result and impact of every investment in supporting in order to to supporting all the learning resources um uh and we we we try to um connect more uh to um the stakeholders business sectors or um other like research communities to uh make the collaborations and make the impact together yes so Washington has had to leave the webinar uh for an emergency he just told me so like he he sends his apologies if I can answer for Brazil uh taking over uh I think we I think again I super agree with Susan I think it comes from multiple from multiple actors you you have researchers who who become a open Advocates of of open science you have learn societies uh you you have research organizations that are keen on this Washington is is is one example they're the Brazilian Institute for for information Science and Technology but they actively do research and provide infrastructure for this and they pay for their institution that does this uh I think it's important to connect this within the country as well I think not it's very frequent that people don't know each other within I mean of course Brazil is very large but I mean I I I came into the whole open science field from the reproducibility SL research quality uh uh debate I think there's a lot of open science people who have come from the Open Access movement or for Via CI citizen science or VI open so like I think this SP qual I think we don't always know what people so it's important to try to gather these people together I think the open government partnership which I have just mentioned has put me in contact with a lot of other Advocates who come from other sides of the debate which I who I didn't uh really know I also had the Brazilian reproducibility Network these days which tries to connect institutions researchers it's more focused on Mr Verity but it has a large overlap with open science and this can be built from the ground I mean this can be BN by but this can be built from the ground up I think there's a a big there's a big nich to be filled in terms of like just connecting people who are already working I think this happens in the National at the national level within a large country such as Brazil perhaps small countries might with smaller research communities it might be more easier easier to to see who's working on this but I think it's should work in on a larger scale as well and then I I don't really know how to make it work on the Latin America or or Global South level but I think it's important to think about this how to make these connections I think there's a lot of a lot going on and and really I think connecting this people and mapping what's out there is is super important do we have more questions on the panel I don't see any more from the public can I um I I just want to elaborate a little bit on my my answer from Christine Rogers is how could we collaborate Etc you know especially in the medical field um there's huge possibility for II II Technologies to be implemented um she was mentioning a example there of um of of eegs you know for instance um there are great initiatives worldwide where sort of imagery U is shared and placed on a repository and where um diagnosis and and sort of solutions to to um certain um health problems then happens actually um across the world even if you're based in Brazil or in South Africa and you have this particular um problem so you know this is a very interesting field of collaboration especially as I said you know introducing AI to this this spectrum because AI has the possibility to also open up even further more of course it raises issues in terms of research ethics and integrity and copyright and and a lot of other issues um which it brings to the full um but a very interesting field and that was quite an interesting question and thank you Christine that's uh I think we have to end in 3 minutes so uh does anyone have any final remarks which fit in a minute otherwise I might just thank the panelists and uh Shane do you want to do the the close reminds for us perfect yes thank you all so much for joining in to our uh to our to our committee members and panelists today for that really uh really great uh Q&A I think there's lots of resources initiatives that I was previously unaware of I'll be really excited to check out uh following this event so thank you again um so uh I think to wrap up um just to share a few ways you can stay up to date with our various initiatives you can visit El Community page and join eif's Community newsletter following the links in the chat thank you Anna for sharing those and you can also follow e community on X and Twitter and also on Blue Sky um so yeah just a sincere thanks again to our panelists and to everyone that tuned in today contributed to today's discussion um thanks to everybody that's participated um in the committee since it was founded um and hope you all will continue to follow along um we're also really Keen to establish Partnerships and collaborations with ethos aligned organizations and initiatives who work in this space um so uh please welcome you to get in touch with eif's research culture manager Anna kinova using the email address provided thank you all very much and have a wonderful day thank you very much thank you