Rector candidates debate free culture

Ramón Machuca/Daniel Blázquez

The URJC has made progress in implementing free science and culture practices, but the candidates agreed that there is still a long way to go. While isolated initiatives have been developed in the areas of open data and open access publications, a comprehensive, integrated strategy still does not exist. debate Moderated by professors Jesús González, Tomás Zarza, and Florencia Claes, both candidates have presented their vision of how the university should evolve in the next six years to consolidate these principles.

Fernando García Muiña has defended the need for a paradigm shift so that free culture becomes a cross-cutting theme at the university. He proposes the "integration of free software into research, teaching, and management, as well as a more balanced research evaluation model, combining quantitative and qualitative indicators." Researchers should view these new ways of communicating their results as something natural. "If we are able to get our research staff to consider this the most natural way to communicate their results, we will have taken that step." He also emphasized that these changes must be linked to other organizations and that "it must be an absolutely cross-cutting project, with the Ofi Libre occupying a hierarchical position."

For his part, Abraham Duarte emphasized the need to unify all initiatives related to free culture, including greater collaboration with the URJC library and publishing house. "I would like us to be able to integrate all the university units working in this area over the next six years to emerge stronger." He also advocated for improving free software training for faculty and consolidating the university publishing house, with the goal of positioning its publications in prestigious indexes. "I hope we can position it first in Scopus and later in Journal Citation Reports (JCR)." He also insisted that the university must fully commit to open data and facilitate access to relevant information. "The university, as such, should be the first to facilitate access to this type of data. It's difficult to check the actual number of students we have, etc.; these are unavailable data."

This meeting provided an opportunity to learn about each candidate's positions on open culture and its benefits in the field of research, as well as their proposals for promoting it within the university community.