The Potential of Ecuadorian Universities and the UTN in Particular to Publish their Scientific Results

Abstract

The Universidad Técnica del Norte (UTN), located in Zone 1 in the north of Ecuador in the province of Imbabura, has an information center with appropriate equipment and qualified professionals who are dedicated to their work of informing, through traditional news mediums, the services offered by the university community. This center offers access to all the databases offered by the agreement between SENECYT and UTN. Included are specialized scientific books and periodicals from around the world, a collection of books in print and digital format, and theses. Furthermore, it has a valuable collection of documents in audiovisual and multimedia. Despite this wealth of information, duly processed and organized, the university maintains a low rate of scientific production and, therefore, low national and international visibility. What is urgently needed is the implementation of strategies to help address these barriers that directly affect the academic, investigative, and decision making activities. This paper presents research on the causes that prevent greater scientific productivity of teachers and researchers at the UTN and nationally through bibliographic research highlighting previous research and its results from Ecuador and foreign sources. The second part identifies the causes that impede greater scientific production from the professors and researchers through surveys, taken at the beginning and end, about applied knowledge in workshops given at the University. Finally, It proposes a training strategy for the proper handling of the information available at the university, its search and retrieval, and its organization by the bibliographic management software Myendnoteweb.