21 The Pasts, Presents, and Futures of SciELO

Launched in 1998, the Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO), of which I am the director, has made important contributions to the research and democratization of scientific knowledge. It has done so through a not-for-profit network of over 1,000 journals and by emphasizing the academic, cultural, and social relevance of scholarly communications. These journals are housed within university departments and faculties, in other research institutions, at scientific societies and professional associations, all spread across 16 countries, including Latin America and the Caribbean, Portugal, Spain, and South Africa.