THE RCAAP – Open Access Scientific Repositories of Portugal – reaches this historic milestone as it celebrates 16 years of existence. Remember the route of this service from the Foundation for Science and Technology, developed by FCCN in collaboration with the University of Minho.
Since its creation, the RCAAP Portal has been a “a single point for research, discovery, location and access to thousands of scientific and academic documents”. Examples include scientific journal articles, conference papers, theses, and dissertations. These documents are distributed across several Portuguese repositories and currently have RCAAP hosts 385 resources (journals and repositories).
It was in It was in 2008 that this digital service added the first scientific article, reaching 12,470 deposited articles that same year. This was the beginning of a 16-year journey of providing scientific knowledge to students, teachers and researchers, as well as to all interested citizens.
In its early years, RCAAP's impact was felt quickly. According to information published by this service, "in less than two years, the RCAAP project established itself and gained visibility and recognition nationally and internationally."
100,000 pieces of content in just 5 years
In 2012, the service continued to grow, surpassing the 100 thousand contents deposited. That year, several new developments were recorded, namely, the inclusion of the OASIS.BR Portal, which currently allows the RCAAP Portal to add over 2 million additional documents.
The following year, it became the legally enshrined instrument for complying with the legal deposit of doctoral theses, master's dissertations, and other scientific works. Shortly thereafter, on May 5, 2014, the RCAAP began serving as a support instrument for the FCT's open access policy.
In 2022, more than 25 million downloads
The number of downloads has also evolved favorably and, in 2022, the service registered more than 25 million downloads to hundreds of thousands of documents from repositories, scientific journals and other communities.
2024 has been a year of achievements, with several historic milestones achieved. In June, the Common Repository—one of the services provided by RCAAP, created in 2010—reached 100 participating institutions. The year ends with the goal of one million scientific contents reached.
At the forefront of Open Science
"RCAAP increases the visibility, accessibility, and dissemination of the results of Portuguese academic activity and scientific research," explains Paulo Lopes, the manager of this service. This mission, he adds, allows it to perform an important role in achieving the goals of Open Science movements.
RCAAP is open to participation by all institutions in the Portuguese science and higher education systems. The institutions currently participating in the project, as well as their respective repositories, can be found in the Portal's directory.
RCAAP is also part of the FCT's portfolio of open science services (PubIn, Pólen, Indexar) and science management (PTCRIS program).
For more information about RCAAP, you can visit FCCN page dedicated to this service.
