Introduction

The Dominican Republic has several electronic journals that provide access to full-text content. As of March 2021, seven open access journals are registered in DOAJ; four biomedical journals are full-text indexed in BVS-DO. One electronic journal is using Open Journal Systems. Using OpenDOAR and ROAR directories, two repositories were identified: one from State Secretary for Planning, Economy and Development (SEEPyD) and one from National School for Electoral and Civil Registry Training (EFEC). No mandates are registered in ROARMAP. Two university repositories are currently being implemented: Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo and Universidad APEC. Librarians and information professionals from Dominican Republic have participated in training courses on OA repositories organized by OUI/COLAM. There are four repositories in OpenDOAR.

A study (Open Access Indicators and Scholarly Communications in Latin America) shows that, as of 2014, 0.91% (49) OA journals indexed in Latindex and 0.14% (1) OA journal indexed in RedALyC are published in Dominican Republic.

Enabling Environments

Together with other countries of the region, Dominican Republic participates in open access regional subject repositories with a growing number of full-texts, for example, agriculture (SIDALC); education (RELPE  and CEDUCAR); health and sustainable development (BVS/BVSDE); psychology (PEPSIC); public management and policies (CLAD-SIARE); science and technology (PERIODICA); social sciences (CLACSO, FLACSO, CLASE); work (LABORDOC); among others.

Dominican Republic is a member of Latindex, Regional Cooperative Online Information System for Scholarly Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal.

In the framework of the national Strategic Plan for Science, Technology and Innovation 2008-2018, the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology (MESCYT) have oriented some efforts toward developing policies to promote OA to scientific information. In addition, the Dominican Telecommunications Institute (INDOTEL), the National Commission for Knowledge and Information Society (CNSIC), the Office for National Statistics (ONE) and the Technological Institute of The Americas (ITLA), are official institutions that has been adding efforts to support free access to public information and promote Open Data. The Ministry of Public Health (MSP) is also promoting and participating in the incipient definition of public policies for open access to scientific information in the health sector.

In the interest of promoting OA in the Dominican Republic, UNESCO Cluster Office to Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti and Aruba and the Dominican Republic and the Dominican National Commission for UNESCO (CNDU) organized the first National Seminar on Open Access to Scientific Information (October, 2013).

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

APEC University (UNAPEC) is the national focal point of Latindex, and is implementing actions to foster quality and visibility of Dominican academic journals and OA publication. They have organized seminars and workshops for journal editors. Under the auspices of Latindex, journal editors from Dominican Republic have participated in training workshops about the Latin America Journals Online (LAMJOL) and online publishing with support from INASP-PERII and CAICYT/CONICET.

Pontifical Catholic University Madre y Maestra (PUCMM) and Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (GFDD/FUNGLODE) are partners that contribute contents in the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC), an open access cooperative established in 2004, multilingual and multi-institutional digitization project of partners within the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean that provides users with access to Caribbean cultural, historical and research materials held in archives, libraries, and private collections.

One of the main regional projects in the arena of OA in which the country is participating is the Virtual Health Library (BVS-DO), sponsored by the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO/WHO-DO) and coordinated by the Technological Institute of Santo Domingo (INTEC). The National Advisory Committee for BVS-DO was established in 2002. Within the context of this regional cooperation initiative, some actions were taken into the possibility of implementing a Scientific Electronic Library Online, SciELO site, to integrate journals from Caribbean region. They organized workshops for scientific information managers; however, this initiative did not materialize.

Several academic libraries are members of the Association of Caribbean University, Research and Institutional Libraries (ACURIL) and they participate in the annual conference and workshops, which allows sharing experiences and participating in regional initiatives on OA.

On digital libraries, the main ongoing project is the Dominican Digital Library (BDD), developed by the General National Archive (AGN / Ministry of Culture). The BDD has a collection of about 10,000 titles of books and 3,600 journals that have been digitized. At its initial phase, BDD provided free access to the full text of 3,000 titles of books. Hereafter is expected to include Dominican serials publications from the nineteenth century until 1965. The Information and Documentation Center for Development (CIDD) develops an OA virtual library, under the auspices of the World Bank and the coordination of the Libraries System of PUCMM. The collection consists of documents emanating from government agencies in the Dominican Republic, the World Bank, JICA and civil society organizations, on various topics of economic and social development. There is also the Dominican Virtual Library, sponsored by Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (GFDD/FUNGLODE).

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).
• Molina Piñeiro, M., E. F. Marrero Sera, and Á. J. Puentes Puente. 2015. “Open Access Repositories as an Alternative for the Visibility of Science at Universities: A Case Study [Os Repositórios de Acesso Aberto Como Alternativa Para a Visibilidade Da Ciência Nas Universidades: Estudo de Caso].” Revista Cubana de Informacion En Ciencias de La Salud 26(4).