The future of Latin American academic journals

Since the 1990s scholarly journals produced in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) have experienced an impressive quantitative and qualitative growth. In the late 1990s there were 15,049 ISSNs registered in Latin America, and the Latin American Journal Collection included 2488 scientific journals. The expansion of the regional capacity to produce and sustain scholarly publications is related to uneven processes, with many successful journals, pockets of excellence, innovative models, as well as failed enterprises, entrenched obstacles, and difficulties. This chapter will analyse the recent trajectory and the main challenges that LAC journals are facing, not only in terms of having a greater participation in the worldwide scientific arena but also to meet the multifaceted and diverse demands of the region's knowledge production and distribution.