The open academic infrastructure and the scientific journal in Venezuela

Latin America maintains an academic infrastructure, which in its great majority belongs to public academic institutions where universities and publishers drive and promote open content through platforms that offer free software, among them, the Universidad Nacional Experimental de los Llanos Occidentales Ezequiel Zamora (Unellez) and operates in the provinces of Apure, Barinas, Cojedes and Portuguesa, being the largest in the western part of Venezuela, The Unellez, has a Journal System, which contains 26 scientific journals of different disciplines. Among them, the Journal of the Latin American Digital Observatory Ezequiel Zamora (Odlez), which has been operating since 2017 and its areas of knowledge are social and political sciences. However, due to the political crisis affecting Venezuela, it shakes all dimensions of the country, and consequently the Educational System. Many will wonder how the academic infrastructure of scientific journals in Venezuela works? From the experience of Odlez, we can express, in terms of governance, this type of project only receives support from the university in the use of an open source free Software platform (Open Journal Systems), which guarantees open standards, data collection, open content, among others. Sustainability is limited by institutional funding, resources are managed autonomously by the national and international editorial team (ad honorem) and consequently the operation depends on the human capital that composes it. There are no government programs or projects that support these initiatives with financial and non-financial resources. This increases the gaps in the open academic infrastructure in the country, since the technology and resources necessary to maintain the sustainability and security of scientific communication in Venezuela are still in use due to the use of open source free software.

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