Human activities in Antarctica were increasing before the COVID-19 pandemic, and tourism was not an exception. The growth and diversification of Antarctic tourism over the last few decades have been extensively studied. However, environmental impacts associated with this activity have received less attention despite an increasing body of scholarship examining environmental issues related to Antarctic tourism. Aside from raising important research questions, the potential negative effects of tourist visits in Antarctica are also an issue discussed by Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties. This study presents the results of a meta-analysis of scholarly publications that synthesizes and updates our current knowledge of environmental impacts resulting from Antarctic tourism. A first publication database containing 233 records that focussed on this topic was compiled and subjected to a general bibliometric and content analysis. Further, an in-depth content analysis was performed on a subset of 75 records, which were focussed on showing specific research on Antarctic tourism impacts. The main topic, methods, management proposals, and research gaps highlighted by the respective authors of these 75 publications were assessed. The range of research topics addressed, the methods used - including the application of established research designs from the field of environmental impact assessment -, and the conclusions reached by the study authors are discussed. Interestingly, almost one third of the studies did not detect a direct relationship between tourism and significant negative effects on the environment. Cumulative impacts of tourism have received little attention, and long-term and comprehensive monitoring programs have been discussed only rarely, leading us to assume that such long-term programs are scarce. More importantly, connections between research and policy or management do not always exist. This analysis highlights the need for a comprehensive strategy to investigate and monitor the environmental impacts of tourism in Antarctica. A first specific research and monitoring programme to stimulate a debate among members of the Antarctic scientific and policy communities is proposed, with the ultimate goal of advancing the regulation and management of Antarctic tourism collaboratively.

Citizen science (CS) aims primarily to create a new scientific culture able to improve upon the triple interaction between science, society, and policy in the dual pursuit of more democratic research and decision-making informed by sound evidence. It is both an aim and an enabler of open science (OS), to which it contributes by involving citizens in research and encouraging participation in the generation of new knowledge. This study analyses scientific output on CS using bibliometric techniques and Web of Science (WoS) data. Co-occurrence maps are formulated to define subject clusters as background for an analysis of the impact of each on social media. Four clusters are identified: HEALTH, BIO, GEO and PUBLIC. The profiles for the four clusters are observed to be fairly similar, although BIO and HEALTH are mentioned more frequently in blogposts and tweets and BIO and PUBLIC in Facebook and newsfeeds. The findings also show that output in the area has grown since 2010, with a larger proportion of papers (66%) mentioned in social media than reported in other studies. The percentage of open access documents (30.7%) is likewise higher than the overall mean for all areas.

In this study we analyse the relationship between mobility and scientific performance in a Spanish university. We used different sources: an institut

Higher education has undergone far-reaching changes in most countries in recent years. University systems are in the midst of profound transformation and institutions are under growing competitive pressure to improve their performance. This tendency to introduce market mechanisms in education and extend more professional management systems to universities has translated into the appearance on the scene, unprecedented in some countries, of private universities, many as for-profit organizations. This article aims to assess the impact of private universities’ activity on academic research. To this end, it conducts a case study of the Spanish university system, comprising 78 universities, 49 public and 29 private. Most of the latter were founded in the 1990s or later in response to a policy geared to enhancing performance in higher education by heightening competition. The conclusion drawn is that private universities, particularly the for-profit kind, conduct research less intensively than public institutions. Their contribution to this, the public good dimension of the university mission, is consequently still scant, for their focus is on teaching.

Este trabajo analiza las iniciativas sobre Ciencia Abierta en Latinoamérica a través del estudio cualitativo exploratorio de las políticas públicas y cuantitativo cientométrico de las publicaciones científicas. Para ello se han consultado fuentes de organismos oficiales y se ha usado la base de datos internacional SCOPUS para la obtención de los principales indicadores bibliométricos. Los resultados obtenidos muestran que es en la última década cuando empiezan a surgir iniciativas en este tema y, en concreto, en 7 países: Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, México, Perú y Uruguay. La mayor parte de las políticas se orientan a la promoción de infraestructuras para el acceso abierto, fundamentalmente a publicaciones. La producción científica sobre ciencia abierta se concentra en los últimos 5 años y la región va aumentando sus aportes al mundo. Destacan los temas de acceso abierto, datos abiertos, innovación en investigación e investigación participativa pero no hay una tendencia correlativa a su publicación en revistas científicas de acceso abierto. Aunque se ha hecho evidente el interés por la ciencia abierta en un sentido amplio a nivel académico, por el momento gran parte de las iniciativas a nivel de políticas y legislación se han centrado en el acceso abierto.