For two days members of COAR, RedCLARA and LA REFERENCIA gathered and shaped the proposed for the integration of the region in the work developed for the establishment of an infrastructure to support and enhance the storage and distribution of scientific work through Open Access repositories.

Santiago, Chile May 2012 - In order to stimulate the creation of a solid structure for the integration of Latin America as a member of the Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR) on May 3rd and 4th 2012 representatives of COAR RedCLARA, and the Federated Network of Institutional Repositories of Scientific Publications (LA REFERENCIA) gathered at the offices of the Latin American Corporation of Advanced Networks, RedCLARA.

The meeting was attended by Malgorzata Lisowska, Technical Coordinator of LA REFERENCIA, Carmen Gloria Labbé, Innovation and Development Director of RedCLARA, Bianca Amaro de Melo from the Brazilian Institute of Information in Science and Technology, IBICT, Alicia López Medina Executive Director of COAR, Florencio Utreras, Executive Director of RedCLARA and Silvia Nakano from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation, MINCYT of Argentina.

Due to the importance of COAR as a global organization in the promotion of policies and tools for the development of  open access repositories, LA REFERENCIA considered of great importance this first step to accomplish the integration of Latin America to the world map of scientific production with Open Access.

During the meeting it was decided to establish a temporary mode that allows the integration of Latin America as a COAR member. The proposal includes the integration as COAR members of the MINCYT of Argentina and RedCLARA as representatives of the countries involved in the project LA REFERENCIA: Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, Peru, Mexico and Ecuador.

This structure will be provisional and will run the time it takes to build the ultimate and solid Latin American structure that regulate and govern the participation of the region in COAR.

Sobre COAR
The Confederation of Open Access Repositories is a young association of repository initiatives launched in October 2009, uniting over 80 institutions in 24 countries from throughout Europe, Latin America, Asia, and North America. Its mission is to enhance greater visibility and application of research outputs through global networks of Open Access digital repositories.
Website: http://www.coar-repositories.org/

About LA REFERENCIA
The Federated Network of Institutional Repositories of Scientific Publications (LA REFERENCIA) is a project presented by RedCLARA, funded by the Regional Public Goods of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and involves the participation of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela.
This initiative seeks to share and highlight the scientific production generated in institutions of higher education and scientific research. Its main purpose is the creation of a common strategy and a framework of agreements for the construction and maintenance of a Federated Network of Institutional Repositories of Scientific Publications for storing, sharing, giving visibility and open access to scientific production from Latin America.
Website: http://lareferencia.redclara.net/rfr/