Paulo Rebêlo

Paulo Rebêlo and Katie Mantell
30 January 2004
Source: SciDev.Net

[RECIFE] The Brazilian government has negotiated a US$5 million reduction in the fees it pays to allow many of the country’s researchers to gain free access to electronic versions of a large number of scientific journals.

The government’s ‘journal website’ (Portal de Periódicos), allows researchers across the country to access the full text of thousands of international journals, magazines and databases covering a broad range of subjects.

Last year, the government funding agency responsible for the website, known as CAPES (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Staff), paid a total of US$20 million in individual agreements with international publishers in order to provide access to their publications through its website.

But as a result of recent negotiations, CAPES will this year pay one quarter less. In addition, CAPES has also secured an increase of almost a third in the amount of content available through the website, meaning that now 4,800 journals can be read through the system.

“Science is a part of our natural human heritage,” says Roberto Bartholo from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, who led negotiations with publishers. “Every country or institution that wishes to benefit and improve science must fight for better conditions in order to share knowledge.”

In many developing nations, institutions can gain free or reduced-price access to journals through systems such as the Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative (HINARI), run by the World Health Organisation. But Brazil is too rich to qualify for such initiatives.

However, there is still a need to push for better access to scientific journals in richer developing nations such as Brazil and Mexico, according to Sarah Durrant, senior programme manager at the UK-based International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP).

“It sounds like the Brazilian government has done an amazing job,” she says, adding that Brazil’s example shows that governments can have considerable clout in negotiations with international publishers if they act on behalf of their research institutions.

The website, which last year received more than 3.7 million visits, can be accessed from Internet terminals at 100 universities, 37 research centres and 29 technology education centres across the country.

Publishers such as Kluwer, Springer, Cambridge Abstract Scientific, and Emerald are participating in the programme. Each year since the website’s launch in 2000, CAPES has secured more favorable conditions for the website, including more flexible contracts and longer payment deadlines.

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Paulo Rebêlo
14 January 2004
Source: SciDev.Net

[RECIFE] A failure by the Brazilian government to provide much-needed new teaching and research posts in universities is preventing many researchers with doctoral degrees from finding suitable employment.

This is the conclusion of a report published last month by the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science (SBPC), based on statements from universities, public institutions and thousands of unemployed new PhD holders.

The report, which was written by the SBPC’s regional division in Rio de Janeiro, recommends a number of moves to improve the situation. In particular it says that new efforts should be made to encourage private companies and universities to hire new PhDs.

“Brazil needs a strategy to educate business people on the importance of high-skilled researchers in their companies,” says Luiz Carlos Scavarda do Carmo, coordinator of development projects at Pontifícia Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro.

Maria Eulália Vares, SBPC’s secretary in Rio de Janeiro, says that a particular challenge is the regional variation in the number of jobs available for those holding doctoral degrees. “Some regions tend to face more difficulties than others when it comes to providing work for new PhD holders,” she says. “This has to be solved.”

The report says that persuading private universities to employ more new PhDs would reduce the pressure for extra government funding for public universities to do this.

Temporary contracts should be offered to new doctorates in public institutions for teaching and research, it says. It also recommends that a support programme be developed in public universities outside large cities to provide a guarantee of a minimum amount of work to newly qualified researchers to allow them to continue their research without leaving to look for better work conditions in cities.

According to SBPC officials, 6,000 doctorates and 25,000 masters degrees are awarded each year in Brazil. This compares to the 40,000 PhDs produced every year in the United States, whose gross domestic product is eight times higher than that of Brazil.

The increase in unemployment in this sector in Brazil is largely the result of cuts in the budgets of federal universities.

About one third of those studying for postgraduate degrees are supported by the government. The SBPC argues that it is irrational to spend so much money producing skilled researchers and doctorates – including their training abroad – without later providing them with a job that allows them to use their skills.

Vares says that it is crucial to monitor the demand for new doctorates in different regions and in different disciplines. In some areas of study, such as mathematics, there are usually more vacancies than candidates. “This is very different from most human sciences, where sometimes we have 40 candidates for only one vacancy,” she says.

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