ALICIA CONCYTEC: Peru’s National Repository Explained

ALICIA (Acceso Libre a Información Científica para la Innovación) is Peru’s national open-access repository portal, run by CONCYTEC, the national science and technology council. Searchers who type “alicia concytec” or “alicia repositorio” are usually looking for one of two things: the search portal at alicia.concytec.gob.pe, or the rules a Peruvian institution must meet for its own repository to appear in it. This guide covers both, using the portal’s own Spanish labels and the text of CONCYTEC’s governing directive.

What ALICIA is

ALICIA is a centralised, free-to-read collection of Peruvian scientific and technological output. The portal describes itself as “la mayor colección digital de la producción científica-tecnológica del país”. It does not host most documents itself: CONCYTEC collects (harvests) metadata from the institutional repositories of participating organisations and presents them in a single search. For the general idea of an institutional repository, see our guide to what an institutional repository is.

• Official name: ALICIA, formally the Repositorio Nacional Digital de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación de Acceso Abierto.
• Operator: CONCYTEC (Consejo Nacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Tecnológica), Peru.
• Legal basis: Ley N° 30035, its regulation (Decreto Supremo N° 006-2015-PCM), and Directiva N° 004-2016-CONCYTEC-DEGC, approved by Resolución de Presidencia N° 087-2016-CONCYTEC-P and published in the official gazette El Peruano on 8 June 2016.
• What it holds: books, journal articles, technical-scientific work, software, processed data and monitoring statistics, and academic theses and similar work.
• Cost to readers: the directive describes ALICIA as non-profit and free of registration, subscription or payment, with full texts readable, downloadable and linkable subject to copyright.

The portal also groups material into thematic collections (at the time of reading: El Niño phenomenon, COVID-19 in Peru, water resources, and artificial intelligence).

Who must or may join ALICIA

The directive separates three situations.

Public-sector bodies: obliged

Public-sector entities, such as universities, institutes and companies, are covered whether or not they belong to the national science system (SINACYT). Private entities or individuals whose work was funded wholly or partly with State funds are covered too.

Other private entities: voluntary

Private organisations that do not fall under the funding rule may join voluntarily.

Individual researchers: through CONCYTEC’s own repository

Peruvians living in Peru or abroad, and foreigners whose work was carried out in Peru, may deposit results through CONCYTEC’s institutional repository, but only if they are not affiliated with an institution that already has a repository. If your university runs one, your deposit goes there and reaches ALICIA by harvesting.

The directive excludes classified or reserved national-security information, intelligence information, and research still inside its confidentiality period.

How to search ALICIA

On the home page the search box has a field selector with these options: Todos los Campos (all fields), Título, Autor, Materia (subject), Repositorio and Etiqueta (tag). Type your terms and press Buscar; the Búsqueda Avanzada link opens the advanced search. The menu entry Buscar en Alicia > Guía de Usuario leads to CONCYTEC’s own user guide.

ALICIA is an aggregator, so “alicia repositorio” and “ALICIA” refer to the same portal. Repositorio in the field selector lets you search by source repository.

How a repository joins ALICIA

The 2016 directive (section 6.2) sets out an adhesion checklist. Rules change, so treat this as the directive’s text and confirm current requirements under Acerca de > Requisitos de Adhesión on the portal.

1. Designate a unit and a responsible coordinator. Public bodies do this by resolution or internal document; private bodies by letter.
2. Send a signed adhesion request (Anexo N° 01), signed by the highest administrative authority and the coordinator (public bodies) or the legal representative and the coordinator (private bodies).
3. Complete the online form at alicia.concytec.gob.pe/registro.
4. Provide a stable repository URL (a domain or subdomain) from which metadata can be harvested. The directive recommends a format like “http://tipo de repositorio.dominio web de la institución”; repository types named are institutional, journals, data and others.
5. Meet the repository conditions in 6.2.5, summarised below.

The conditions in 6.2.5 include an internal regulation covering the handling of works under the law; preservation of metadata and content; open access; an online service available “las 24 horas del día, los 365 días del año”; and compliance with CONCYTEC’s repository processing guidelines (Anexo N° 02, updated periodically on the portal).

• Journals inside a repository must be indexed at least in the Latindex catalogue, or in another international index such as SciELO, Scopus or Web of Science, and must run on a platform compatible with OAI harvesting. See our entries on Latindex and SciELO.
• University repositories must hold the theses and degree-conferring work of the year before the request, and have one year to load all documents generated after June 2013, when Ley 30035 was approved.

For technical help, the directive tells institutions to appoint a coordinator and write to the ALICIA team; the portal’s Soporte Técnico menu lists implementation manuals (including exporting metadata from DSpace), a support request form and a technical forum. Deadlines, call dates and any fees for the Convocatorias (evaluation of institutional repositories, with 2024 and 2025 calls listed) are on the portal: check the official site.

Embargoes and exclusions

Section 6.7 of the directive sets the delay rules. A work that will appear in a publication requiring exclusivity may be held back for no more than 24 months from the date it was delivered to the public entity. Results that could lead to a patent, utility model or industrial design may be withheld from repositories and from ALICIA for 12 months, extendable by 18 more months if the registration was filed with INDECOPI under Decisión 486 of the Andean Community.

Where ALICIA sits next to researcher registries

ALICIA is about outputs, not people. Researcher records in Peru live in separate CONCYTEC systems: our guides to the RENACYT national researcher registry and the CTI Vitae researcher CV cover those, and the CONCYTEC funding overview explains the wider agency. Journal-level indexing (Latindex, SciELO, Scopus, Web of Science) matters to ALICIA only as an eligibility condition for journals, as described above.

Common problems

• A repository stops appearing. CONCYTEC monitors metadata periodically and, if it finds an incident, sends the repository coordinator a technical incident report. The coordinator has at most 30 calendar days to fix it or explain in writing why it cannot be fixed.
• Exclusion. Unresolved incidents, or breaches of the law, regulation, directive or guidelines, can lead to exclusion from ALICIA. An excluded repository may ask to be readmitted after CONCYTEC evaluates it.
• Stale content. CONCYTEC checks monthly that adhered repositories are updating, and reports monthly to SUNEDU on repository integration.
• Harvest URL changes. The portal has a Cosecha de repositorios institucionales section with a collection schedule and a protocol-update check, which is where to look after changing platforms.

FAQ

Is ALICIA the same as “alicia repositorio”?

Yes. Both refer to the national portal; it harvests the institutional repositories of participating institutions (listed under RENARE > Instituciones participantes).

Is ALICIA free to use?

Yes. The directive states that access is free and requires no registration, subscription or payment.

Can an individual researcher upload to ALICIA?

Only through CONCYTEC’s institutional repository, and only if the researcher is not affiliated with an institution that has its own repository.

Is the directive still current?

The text summarised here is the 2016 directive. CONCYTEC updates the guidelines and runs evaluation calls, so confirm the current rules on the official site.

Sources

• ALICIA portal, CONCYTEC: https://alicia.concytec.gob.pe/ (read 29 October 2026).
• Directiva N° 004-2016-CONCYTEC-DEGC, “Directiva que regula el Repositorio Nacional Digital de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación de Acceso Abierto”, Resolución de Presidencia N° 087-2016-CONCYTEC-P, El Peruano, 8 June 2016 (read 29 October 2026 via the FAOLEX copy, https://faolex.fao.org/docs/pdf/per158803.pdf).