FCT is the new manager of SciELO Portugal

This year, the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) took over management of the SciELO Portugal project, which consists of a digital library of scientific journals integrated into an international network of libraries in which 26 countries collaborate. 

The idea of creating SciELO originated in Brazil, with the aim of expanding the dissemination of scientific production in Latin America and the Caribbean, and in general in Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking countries. Currently, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Uruguay, and Venezuela are part of this network.

Portugal took its first steps toward joining SciELO International in 2001, which was completed in 2002 on the initiative of the Observatory of Science and Technology. The aim of joining this network was to promote scientific journals published in Portugal by extending open access to high-quality national scientific output.

The project began in Portugal with the implementation of technical requirements and familiarization of the team with the SciELO methodology. In order to select the first journals to be included in the collection, it was necessary to set up a panel of evaluators composed of researchers and university professors who, together with the Observatory of Science and Technology and the FCT, applied the SciELO criteria to journals published in Portugal.

In 2005, with the selection of the first journals that met SciELO's criteria, the Portuguese website for the project was launched. In 2007, Portugal obtained certification as a collection in regular operation within the SciELO network.

The SciELO Portugal project was managed by the Directorate-General for Education and Science Statistics (DGEEC) until 2018, when preparations began for the transition of the project's overall coordination to the FCT. Scientific and technical coordination was taken on by a partnership between the FCT, through its FCCN unit, and the University of Minho (UM). This change involved an update of the technological infrastructure, benefiting from the development of the PUBIN project, which aims to respond to the needs in terms of centralized and interoperable editorial management platforms.

With the transition from SciELO Portugal to FCT, a new Advisory Committee was formed, which updated the Criteria, policy, and procedures for the admission and retention of scientific journals in the SciELO Portugal Collection, which came into effect in January 2021. Compliance with these new Criteria is essential to operationalize and enforce the principles of Open Science, namely in the possibility of using preprints and open peer review. In terms of ensuring integration with the science and technology system, the use of ORCIDs and the JATS-XML format stands out. 

Over the last 20 years, it has been possible to ensure that the SciELO Portugal project complies with the requirements of free access, sustainability, heterogeneity, and credibility of the content disseminated. These criteria were in line with government policy, which defined the principles and practices of Open Science as a priority, resulting in the development and implementation of a National Open Science Policy. 

Since 2014, FCT has been aligned with the principles of Open Science as defined in the Policy on Open Access to Scientific Publications resulting from R&D Projects Funded by FCT, a position that was reinforced with FCT's adherence to Plan S promoted by Science Europe, which postulates that all scientific publications developed after 2020, resulting from research with public funding, must be published in Open Access. 

The procedures for integrating publications into the SciELO Portugal Collection can be found at: http://www.scielo.mec.pt/. Questions and queries can be sent by email to scieloportugal@fct.pt.