RCAAP - Portugal's Open Access Scientific Repositories - is ending 2024 on a high note by reaching the milestone of 1 million documents aggregated from national resources. This goal was achieved in the year that this digital service of the Foundation for Science and Technology, developed by FCCN and the University of Minho, celebrates 16 years of activity.
Paulo Lopes, RCAAP's manager, explains the importance of this achievement and reveals the goals for the future of this project, saying that "it's a historic moment for RCAAP and for open science in Portugal"
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1 million aggregated documents: significance and importance
For Paulo Lopes, this achievement "reflects the commitment of Portuguese institutions to share knowledge in an accessible and transparent way, increasing the visibility and impact of national scientific production".
According to him, the aggregation of 1 million articles also positions Portugal as an example in the adoption of open science practices and, internationally, reinforces the presence of national research in global networks and facilitates access to collaborations, citations and scientific reuse.
The evolution of RCAAP
Since its launch in 2008, this initiative has grown steadily and today has 385 resources (journals and repositories) hosted, among other things. For this evolution, he highlights "the creation of services such as SARI (two thirds of national open access repositories use this service), SARC and adherence to international standards, which have consolidated RCAAP as a reference in the management of scientific information. He also highlights "the importance of the PUBIN initiative in supporting Diamante open access publishing".
However, he also lists some of the challenges that have arisen over the last 16 years: the need to raise awareness among institutions about the adoption of repositories, alignment with open access policies and the integration of repositories with different platforms and standardized formats.
RCAAP's role in promoting open science
According to Paulo Lopes, RCAAP is "a fundamental pillar of the national open science strategy, promoting free access to knowledge and compliance with open access policies, such as those of the FCT". The project's contribution to the democratization of science, which allows research results to reach a wider audience, was also one of the reasons for its success.
Feedback from the community is also one of the highlights for the manager, who says that users recognize it "as an essential service for the management and dissemination of scientific production". Among the various factors, the ease of access, technical support and alignment with the needs of institutions stand out.
Future objectives
The future of this FCT service lies in a transversal objective that aims to continue expanding the coverage of Open Science, as recommended by UNESCO. This goal includes other pillars such as the open educational resources platform (NAU), guidance and support for publishing via the Diamond route (PUBIN), publishing via the transformative route (b-on - https://www.b-on.pt/acesso-aberto/) or making research data publicly available (POLEN).
In the case of RCAAP, the pursuit of this goal involves expanding the aggregation of open access content, strengthening integration with international initiatives and further supporting institutions in complying with open science policies.
In addition, the aim is to "invest in technological innovation to ensure that RCAAP remains at the forefront of scientific information management", concludes the service manager.
