Electronic Publishing in Librarianship and Information Science in Latin America--A Step towards Development?

Introduction: This paper draws on the results of studies undertaken between 2004 and 2007 as part of Project REVISTAS, supported by the European Commission's ALFA Programme. Method: A variety of methods was employed over the life of the project, including analysis of directories, a survey of universities in the region believed to be offering programmes in library and information science, analysis of course documentation to determine the journals cited and an analysis of journal Websites. Results: The weaknesses of the printed scholarly publication process for library and information science in the discipline are highlighted. These include a lack of quality control and haphazard publication programmes. The emergence of electronic publication is identified and the potential it presents is discussed. Conclusions: If scholarly publication in this discipline within Latin America is to achieve its potential, both in the dissemination of research and in the education of students, the opportunities presented by electronic publication, electronic archiving must be grasped, but the full benefits cannot be achieved without attention to the need for peer review and other quality control methods. (Contains 4 tables.)