We were lucky to catch up with Wileidys Artigas recently and have shared our conversation below.
Wileidys, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Parents can play a significant role in affecting how our lives and careers turn out – and so we think it’s important to look back and have conversations about what our parents did that affected us positive (or negatively) so that we can learn from the billions of experiences in each generation. What’s something you feel your parents did right that impacted you positively.
I think that the influence of my parents is undeniable from two perspectives, my mother (who died last year) taught me the discipline and responsibility that means to create and grow a business, she always worked from dawn to dusk to achieve the things she set out to do, it was very recognized in the town where we lived for being a person of her word and she always made me see that there were things beyond that I was capable of achieving. For his part, my dad still teaches me the value of work and perseverance, right now he is 91 years old and every day he gets up to go to the fields to check his properties, he grew up in the countryside and he loves cows.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I started working in universities when I was barely 20 years old and I had my undergraduate degree, from that moment I began this path of learning that still does not end. I had great teachers around me, especially María Cristina Useche Aguirre, Beatriz Queipo and Mildred Romero. We created a great team at the University of Zulia, in Maracaibo, Venezuela, where I come from. Then I was able to continue growing and at the Private University where I worked (URBE) in 2009 they gave me the opportunity to participate as an editor of a scientific journal. It was at that time that I became interested in journal editing issues and I asked a great professor who has already died, Dr. Alvaro Marquez-Fernández, who at that moment would tell me what would mark my career: “you can dedicate yourself to advising universities”, just at that moment I was presented with the first opportunity to do so at a university from Africa. It was my first job as an scientific international consultant in 2017 and it’s still going. In 2018, I decided with my husband to create High Rate Consulting as a high-level academic consulting firm in research and journal editing. To date, we have worked with universities in Angola, Chile, Colombia, Panama, Peru, Bolivia, Honduras and Mexico. In 2020 we moved to USA.
We offer guidance services to researchers within universities to carry out their research processes and management of scientific journals and scientific book editing, in addition to that, we offer technical services such as adaptation of the Open Journal System (OJS), document layout, image design, we are also a Crossref Sponsoring Organization which is the largest provider of digital identifiers (DOI), through them we have supported more than 30 Latin American journals to obtain their identifiers at an affordable cost.
In this process, a network of Ibero-American editors was also created (weeditors.org) in which to date we have more than 120 registered journals. In this network we offer free webinars for editorial professionalization and we have a WhatsApp group from where we interact. and we solve doubts about the editorial process.
High Rate Consulting is also a member of the publications ethics committee (COPE), where we promote ethical and responsible work in our role as authors, editors and reviewers.
It has been a great learning path, and continue growing. I am extremely grateful to the universities that have trusted us from the beginning, especially the Universidad Cesar Vallejo and the Universidad Andina del Cusco in Peru.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
I think the history of social networks is common for these times, particularly before 2020 I believed that in-person work was my main source of income, but the pandemic arrived in 2020 and I had to start showing my work specifically on LinkedIn and was the start of my remote path. The growth was surprising, from this social network I have been growing my audience and network of contacts, in fact through LinkedIn we exchanged with Dr. Jorge Cueva from Ecuador for the start of Weeditors.org; My main advice is to show your career how it is happening, this includes setbacks, learnings and achievements, so that those who are on the same path can learn. In the case of our area, which is academic/scientific, building web reputation is very important, many universities have contacted me for webinars and courses just by seeing a publication on the topics I work with.
Have you ever had to pivot?
I think that a topic that is little said in the professional career of researchers is that we have to continue growing as a team. It has happened to me that many people think only about their individual development and that is why I have had to turn around and move forward in another direction. You go faster alone, but as a team you will go further. I think it has been more than a professional, life learning experience, understanding that we are all different and that there will be many colleagues along the way who will want to move forward together while others may think that you are a danger in their development and would prefer to separate themselves.I have met many people who have contributed to my growth and to whom I will be eternally grateful, I prefer to keep those experiences.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.highrateco.com/home-es
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/highrateco/?hl=es
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wileidys-artigas-261095a7/
- Twitter: @wileart
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@highrateconsultinglives5771/videos
- Other: My facebook profile is active but not used
Image Credits
Portrait images: Ronald Morillo