The Latin American and Spanish Open Science Network, or simply LA Referencia, supports national Open Access strategies in Latin America and Spain through its services by providing a platform with interoperability standards, sharing, and increasing the visibility of scientific production generated by higher education and research institutions.
Starting from the national nodes, LA Referencia integrates scientific articles, doctoral theses, and master’s theses from over one hundred universities and research institutions across the ten countries currently comprising LA Referencia. Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Spain, Panama, Peru, and Uruguay are active members of the network. This initiative is based on technical and organizational agreements among public science and technology agencies (ministries and Oncyts) of the member countries, in partnership with RedCLARA.
LA Referencia was established by the Cooperation Agreement signed in Buenos Aires in 2012, reflecting the political will to provide open access to Latin America’s scientific output as a regional public good, with an emphasis on results funded by public resources.
LA Referencia is possible thanks to a work network formed by the Board of Directors (appointed by the authorities of Science and Technology); the Technical Committee (responsible for the operation of the national nodes), the administrative support of RedCLARA and a network of collaborators in the region committed to Open Science.
The central team that collaborates in this joint is composed of:
President of LA Referencia. Representative of Panama, Head of the Department of Scientific and Technological Information at the National Secretariat of Science, Technology and Innovation (SENACYT) of Panama.
Vice President of LA Referencia. Representative of Chile, Deputy Director of Networks, Strategy, and Knowledge at the Chilean Research and Development Agency (ANID).
Developer of the LA Referencia software platform (LR Harvester).
Economist. Master’s student in Management and Policy at the University of San Andrés.
Communicator and researcher in user experience design (UX). Master’s degree in Cognitive Sciences from the University of Costa Rica.
IT Specialist at the Vice-Rectorate for Research, University of Costa Rica.
