2013/12/04 by Hebe Vessuri, Jean-Claude Guédon, Jean‐Claude Guédon +2 · 275 citations
Decision Sciences · Engineering · Medicine · #Academic Publishing and Open Access #Competition (biology) #Economics #Engineering #Epistemology #Excellence #Health and Medical Research Impacts #Latin Americans #Law #Political science #Publishing #Quality (philosophy) #Regional science #Reputation #Social science #Sociology #Underpinning #scientometrics and bibliometrics research
paper · doi:10.1177/0011392113512839
published in Current Sociology 62(5), 647-665 (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 2013/12/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
The current competition regime that characterizes international science is often presented as a quest for excellence. It diversely affects research in Latin America and research in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. This article asks how this competition regime may orient the direction of research in Latin America, and to whose advantage. It is argued that, by relating excellence to quality differently, a research policy that seeks to improve the level of science in Latin America while preserving the possibility of solving problems relevant to the region can be designed. Competition, it is also argued, certainly has its place in science, but not as a general management tool, especially if the goal is to improve overall quality of science in Latin America. Scientific competition is largely managed through journals and their reputation. Therefore, designing a science policy for Latin America (and for any ‘peripheral’ region of the world) requires paying special attention to the mechanisms underpinning the production, circulation and consumption of scientific journals. So-called ‘international’ or ‘core’ journals are of particular interest as local, national, or even regional journals must struggle to find their place in this peculiar publishing eco-system.