Right of open access: proposal for action to support the transformation of societies

Abstract

Never before has society had as much information as it does today; as well as, never before has society had so much need to have access to information. In this sense, it is affirmed that with the legal foundations of open access (OA) it will be supported to cover this need, because in the OA standards it is established that the scholarly publications (SP) made in Public Higher Education Institutions (PHEI) must be visible and available without technical and / or legal restrictions for access; also, one of the aims of sustainable development objective indicator 16.10 and 16.10.1 is to ensure public access to information in accordance with national laws, international agreements and legal guarantees in each country. The above referents allow us to formulate the following question: Why and how can the PHEI protect and legally manage your SP in OA?. To verify this assumption, a documentary research is carried out with variables and content analysis of the legal foundations of the OA of some countries in Latin America and the Caribbean that are registered in the MELIBEA and ROARMAP directories. Based on the interpretation of the results obtained, the proposal for an open access right was developed, which has the following objectives: to justify that by legal and human right the PHEIs are responsible for the protection, decision making, management and usufruct of the SP; integrate this responsibility into the legal foundations of OA; and to show how the functions and actions of libraries of PHEI will support OA to SP for the benefit, development and transformation of societies.