Introduction

The health information regional meeting issued the Havana Declaration that included open access promotion back in 2001 (Habana Declaration at the 5º Health Information Regional Congress) and health journals and libraries adopted first open access initiatives, mainly in collective initiatives.

As of March 2021, 111 open access journals from Cuba are registered in DOAJ compared to 63 in 2014. A total of 11 repositories in OpenDOAR are listed as of 2021. No mandates are registered in ROARMAP.

A study (Open Access Indicators and Scholarly Communications in Latin America) shows that, as of 2014, 2.39% (129) OA journals indexed in Latindex; 3.15% (22) OA journals indexed in RedALyC and 5.35% (48) OA journals indexed in SciELO are published in Cuba. 

Enabling Environment

Cuba participates in The Global Network for Science Academies (IAP) project Open Institutional Repositories Infrastructure network for Central America and the Caribbean, coordinated by the Academy of Sciences from Cuba.

Together with other countries of the region, Cuba participates in open access regional subject repositories with a growing number of full-texts, examples: health (BVS), agriculture (SIDALC), science (PERIÓDICA), education (Relpe), public management and policies (CLAD-SIARE), social sciences (CLACSO, FLACSO, CLASE), work (LABORDOC), marine sciences (Oceandocs), information science (E-Lis), among others.

5-8 March 2013: 30 experts and Policy specialists from 25 countries including Belize; Virgin Islands; St Vincent and Grenadines; St Kitts and Nevis and St Martin; Argentina; Brazil; Chile; Costa Rica; Dominican Republic; El Salvador; Guatemala; Uruguay and Mexico gathered in Kingston to develop strategies and a road map to implement open access policies in the Latin American and Caribbean Region. This was the first regional consultation on open access to scientific information and research organized by the UNESCO Kingston Cluster office in collaboration with the Ministry of Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining, Ministry of Information, Government of Jamaica, University of West Indies and UNESCO National Commission for Jamaica. Workshop participants had the opportunity to contribute towards highlighting priority areas for intervention to achieve “Openness” in the region and individual countries. Participants reviewed the UNESCO OA policy templates and worked out specific policies for their own country/institution.

Key Organizations

IDICT is the national focal point of Latindex in Cuba. A project of Scielo together with the Health Network of Cuba (Red Telemática de Salud en Cuba - INFOMED) and the Cuban Health Library. Since 2009, the creation of a National Commission for the Development of Open Access in Cuba has promoted inter-institutional collaboration, training and events for open access in all disciplines, and the creation of new institutional repositories. The Open Access Week 2009 and 2010, were organized by the Scientific and Technological Information Institute (Instituto de Información Científica y Tecnológica- IDICT), the Cuban Society for Information Sciences (Sociedad Cubana de Ciencias de la Información - SOCICT), the Academy of Sciences of Cuba (Academia de Ciencias de Cuba - ACC), the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment (Dirección de Ciencia del Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología y Medio Ambiente – CITMA) and the Health National Information Center (Centro Nacional de Información de Ciencias Médicas, INFOMED). In 2010, the event received support from INASP for an OJS workshop for journal editors. Cuba has received support from Unesco for several open access initiatives.

The International Information Congress (INFO) includes an open access forum, and INFO2012 also will include the II Forum on Open Access. With support also from UNESCO.

The inter-institutional events and training activities were planned and organized by the National Commission for the Development of Open Access in Cuba, which has research groups on issues related to digital repositories, open access journals and open access policies. Based on research results of the situation in Cuba, and following best international practices, this Commission has built a strategy for open access in Cuba. The Scientific and Technological Information Institute (Instituto de Información Científica y Tecnológica- IDICT) is coordinating a project for the development of a Cuban Network of Digital Repositories, a National Portal of Open Access Scientific Journals in OJS (today, 37 journals in the country use OJS for their open access journal management). and a Science National Harvester.

The Cuban Network of Science (Red Cubana de la Ciencia – Redcien) Virtual Library (Biblioteca Virtual de las Ciencias de Cuba) with full-text contents, and the open access bibliographic database CUBACIENCIA, developed by the National Library of Science and Technology (Biblioteca Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología – BNCT), are both contributing to the open access movement in Cuba.

The output of a collaboration project of IDICT with Redalyc, within a collaboration program of CITMA (Cuba) and CONACYT (México) to improve Cuban journal quality and visibility, is the Journal Portal Cuba in Redalyc with 20 full-text open access journals, results of training activities organized by Redalyc and IDICT. 

The Network of Scientometric Studies for Higher Education, National Center for Scientific Research, Havana, has prepared for INASP a “Bibliometric study of Latin American countries supported by INASP 1996-2008” with research results for several countries of the region.

Events and Programmes

• Coloquio “Comunicación científica y académica en acceso abierto en Cuba y contribuciones desde CLACSO”, October 12, 2017 from 9am to 2pm – Cuba, Cuba, Organized by Dra. María Elena Dorta-Duque, ISRI, Cuba, Type: coloquium
• Presentación del Portal Bibliotecario PRIAIS, October 20, 2015 from 1:30pm to 2:30pm – Cuba, Cuba, Organized by Yohannis Martí Lahera y Mirelys Puerta Díaz, Type: lanzamiento
• Presentación de Scriptorium, el Repositorio institucional de la UH, October 20, 2015 from 1:30pm to 2:30pm – Cuba, Cuba, Organized by Yohannis Martí Lahera y Mirelys Puerta Díaz, Type: lanzamiento
• Twitazo por el Open Access, October 22, 2015 from 9 pm to 11 pm – Cuba, Cuba, Organized by Mirelys Puerta Díaz, Type: publicity
• Conversatorio sobre Acceso Abierto, October 22, 2015 from 11 am to 1 pm – Cuba, Cuba, Organized by Mirelys Puerta Díaz, Type: discussion
• Open Acces in BTKUH, October 25, 2016 from 11 am to 12 pm – Cuba, Cuba, Organized by Mirelys Puerta Díaz, Type: conversation

Publications

• 2014: "Open Access Indicators and Scholarly Communications in Latin America" is the result of a joint research and development project supported by UNESCO and undertaken by UNESCO in partnership with the Public Knowledge Project (PKP); the Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO); the Network of Scientific Journals of Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal (RedALyC); Africa Journals Online (AJOL); the Latin America Social Sciences School- Brazil (FLACSO- Brazil); and the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO).
• Andalia, R. C. 2008. “PubMed Central and Biomed Central: The pro-Open Access Movement Advances in the Biomedical Field [PubMed Central y Biomed Central: El Movimiento pro Acceso Abierto Avanza En El Campo de La Biomedicina].” ACIMED 18(4).
• Casate-Fernández, R., and J. A. Senso-Ruiz. 2017. “Cuban Open Access Scientific Production in Scopus in the Period 2010-2014 [Producción Científica Cubana En Acceso Abierto En Scopus En El Período 2010-2014].” Revista Cubana de Informacion En Ciencias de La Salud 28(1):2–25.
• Dorta-Contreras, A. J. 2007. “Possible Repercussions of the Open Access Revolution for Latin American Neuroscientists [3] [Posibles Repercusiones de La Revolución Del Acceso Abierto Para Los Neurocientíficos Latinoamericanos].” Revista de Neurologia 44(12):768. doi: 10.33588/rn.4412.2007120.
• Fernández Fernández, M. M., L. Domínguez Cruz, and Y. Abreu Bartomeo. 2016. “Limitations in the Distribution of Contents among Latin American and Caribbean Open Access Repositories [Limitaciones En La Distribución de Contenidos Entre Repositorios de Acceso Abierto En América Latina y El Caribe].” Revista Cubana de Informacion En Ciencias de La Salud 27(2):249–65.
• García, C. P., and N. S. Tarragó. 2010. “The Open Access Movement and the Health Sector Information Professionals from Ciudad de La Habana [El Movimiento de Acceso Abierto y Los Profesionales de La Información Del Sector de La Salud En Ciudad de La Habana].” ACIMED 21(4):376–402.
• Morales, C. R. G. T., C. F. L. Tenorio, and C. V. M. H. Espinosa. 2008. “Open Access and Free Software: Premises for Technological Independence [Acceso Abierto y Software Libre: Premisas Para La Independencia Tecnológica].” ACIMED 17(2).
• Plasencia-Salgueiro, A., and B. D. L. M. Ballagas-Flores. 2014. “Comparative Analysis of Information Retrieval and Analysis of Open Access Tools from an Educational Concept [Análisis Comparativo de Herramientas de Recuperación y Análisis de Información de Acceso Libre Desde Una Concepción Docente].” Transinformacao 26(3):315–26. doi: 10.1590/0103-37862014000300008.
• Sánchez Tarragó, N. 2007. “The Movement of Open Access to Information and the National and Institutional Policies of Self-Archive [El Movimiento de Acceso Abierto a La Información y Las Políticas Nacionales e Institucionales de Autoarchivo].” ACIMED 16(3).
• Sánchez-Tarragó, N., A. Caballero-Rivero, P. Trzesniak, D. Deroy Domínguez, R. N. M. Dos Santos, and J. C. Fernández-Molina. 2016. “Scientific Journals in Latin America on Their Way towards Open Access: A Diagnosis on Policies and Editorial Strategies [Las Revistas Científicas En América Latina Hacia El Camino Del Acceso Abierto: Un Diagnóstico de Políticas y Estrategias Editoriales].” Transinformacao 28(2):159–72. doi: 10.1590/2318-08892016000200003.
• Sánchez-Tarragó, N., and J. Carlos Fernández-Molina. 2010. “The Open Access Movement and Cuban Health Research Work: An Author Survey.” Health Information and Libraries Journal 27(1):66–74. doi: 10.1111/j.1471-1842.2009.00852.x.
• Sánchez-Tarragó, N., J. C. Fernández-Molina, and A. Caballero-Rivero. 2012. “Reflections on Open Access to Information in the Cuban Context: The Case of the Health Sector [Reflexiones En Torno al Acceso Abierto a La Información En El Contexto Cubano: El Caso Del Sector Salud].” Informacao e Sociedade 22(2):51–59.
• Sánchez-Tarragó, N., J. C. Fernández-Molina, and A. C. Rivero. 2012. “An Open Access Policy for the Scientific Output of Cuba’s National Health System.” Libri 62(3):211–21. doi: 10.1515/libri-2012-0017.
• Tarragó, N. S. C. 2011. “Another Year to Celebrate the Open Access Movement to Information [Otro Año Para Celebrar El Movimiento de Acceso Abierto a La Información].” ACIMED 22(3):186–88.
• Tarragó, N. S., and J. Carlos Fernández Molina. 2008. “Open Access Journals: Knowledge and Attitudes among Cuban Health Researchers [Conocimientos y Actitudes de Los Investigadores Cubanos de La Salud Hacia Las Revistas de Acceso Abierto].” ACIMED 17(3).
• Vidal Ledo, M. J., and R. Zayas Mujica. 2018. “Scientific Communication and Open Access [Comunicación Científica y El Acceso Abierto].” Revista Cubana de Educacion Medica Superior 32(3):244–54.