Open access in Argentina: a proposal for tracking scientific publications with OpenAlex

Abstract

This study proposes a methodology using OpenAlex (OA) for tracking Open Access publications in the case of Argentina, a country where a self-archiving mandate has been in effect since 2013 ( Law 26.899, 2013). A sample of 167,240 papers by researchers from the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) was created and analyzed using statistical techniques. We estimate that OA is able to capture between 85-93% of authors for all disciplines, with the exception of Social Sciences and Humanities, where it only reaches an estimated 47%. The availability of papers in Open Access was calculated to be 41% for the period 1953-2021 and 46% when considering exclusively the post-law period (2014-2021). In both periods, gold Open Access made up the most common route. When comparing equal periods post and pre-law, we observed that the upward trend of gold Open Access was pre-existing to the legislation and the availability of closed articles in repositories increased by 5% to what is estimated based on existing trends. However, while the green route has had a positive evolution, it has been the publication in gold journals that has boosted access to Argentine production more rapidly. We concluded that the OA-based methodology, piloted here for the first time, is viable for tracking Open Access in Argentina since it yields percentages similar to other national and international studies.