Publishing

The University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne supports open access by offering its researchers and teachers the possibility to freely distribute their scientific publications through an open repository : the portail HAL de l’URCA. The deposit of scientific publications, in agreement with the co-authors and in compliance with the publisher's policy, reinforces the visibility and scientific excellence of the University and its members.

The national position on Open Access (OA) is to promote the Green road : here it is the authors themselves who self-archive their publications in an open repository. OA has been put forward as the future of academic publishing as it facilitates immediate, permanent and worldwide access to academic research and knowledge and stimulates scientific exchange and collaboration, at no cost to the reader and exempt from most restrictions concerning licenses.

The Loi pour une République Numérique (Digital Republic Act, No. 2016-1321) which came into effect on 7 October concerns researchers directly, since it covers the self-archiving of publications. Previously, the right for researchers to deposit their publications in an open archive depended very much on publishers’ policy, which was set out in publishing contracts. Thanks to the Article 30 of the law, the situation is now much simpler. In practical terms, the 4 key points to retain are as follows:

• 1. Article 30 only applies to journal articles, and the possibility of self-archiving applies only to the postprint (the final accepted version );
• 2. The published article must be the product of research at least half funded by grants from the state, territorial authorities or public institutions, by subsidies from national funding agencies or by European Union funds, and the researchers concerned must be exercising in France.
• 3. If the publisher of a journal imposes an embargo for the postprint, the law takes precedence and allows to reduce the embargo period systematically to 6 months for STEM and 12 months for SSH;
• 4. Once the publisher has itself placed the article in Open Access on its own, the author can deposit the postprint without further delay. Of course, this deposit is not essential to the sharing of science, but it is an additional guarantee of continuing access to the file;

For more information relevant to the legality of the deposit, please see Hal tools’ page of the portail HAL de l’URCA or contact us to the following address hal-contact@univ-reims.fr

EPURE: Éditions et Presses universitaires de Reims

The purpose of the Éditions et Presses universitaires de Reims is to allow scientific researchers and teachers of the University to publish books or academic studies. Chef laboratories or scientific council are responsible for the scientific quality of the works submitted. The ÉPURE are a unit within the URCA’s university Library.