The Scientific publication in Venezuela: crisis and transformations in pursuit of survival

Abstract

Within the framework of the profound transformations of scientific publishing, Venezuelan journals face a difficult situation because of the sharp fall in local research and the total loss of support from the State. A significant number have been paralyzed or delayed. However, many editors are determined to keep their journals active and, recently, some autonomous universities propose initiatives to prevent the disappearance of publishing activity by adopting new ways of supporting their operation that contribute to adapting to the demands of international repositories and maintaining their continuity, and, subsequently, a review is made of statistical data from national and international repositories and interviews with those responsible for coordinating research in four autonomous universities, editors and researchers from various areas of knowledge. The situation of Venezuelan journals shows a significant drop in their activity, while certain changes begin to be experienced in search of survival. The most notable thing is the change in the profile of the authorships of the articles in some journals, which in 10 years go from being fundamentally national to predominantly foreign.