Scientific publications

HAL-UM portal

Opened in 2017, the HAL-UM portal is designed to promote the institution's scientific production, through various actions:

Open Access journals with APC

The majority of scientific publications, often publicly funded, are available by subscription from publishers. The amounts paid by higher education establishments and research organizations for access to content are very high, and constantly rising.

Transforming agreements", negotiated in France by the Couperin consortium, aim to move from a traditional subscription model to one of publication of all articles in open access through payment of APCs. Some publishers, while not fully committed to transformative agreements, allow open access publication of articles after payment of APCs. APCs (Article Processing Charges) are publication fees charged by publishers to finance the open access dissemination of scientific articles.

The University of Montpellier is a signatory to a number of these agreements, and thus covers the costs associated with open access publication of articles in these journals. Subscriptions and APCs are managed by the SCD (Service Commun de Documentation).

If you are recognized as a UM-affiliated staff member and corresponding author, you can benefit from these agreements. Click here for the list of publishers and journals concerned.
For further information: Email APC managers

The APC model is very costly: in France, APC costs have risen sharply in recent years, and projections for 2030 are alarming. At local level, an estimate of the APC expenses paid by the UM can be consulted on the OpenAPC platform.

What's more, the APC business model has encouraged the emergence of so-called "predatory" publishers. The latter charge APCs and publish articles after a minimal or non-existent proofreading process. Their interest is purely economic, and publishing with them can be detrimental to authors.

Tools for open-access publishing without APC are presented in the toolbox below.

Open Access "diamond" journals

In contrast to the APC model, it is possible to publish in Open Access without paying publication fees, by choosing so-called "diamond" journals (free for both author and reader, thanks to upstream institutional funding). To find diamond journals in your field, visit the DOAJ website.

Here are a few examples of "diamond" journals based on preprints and/or integrating Open peer-reviewing into their review process: 

To find out more, you can watch the webinar "How to find a journal to publish in Open Access" or contact us: E-mail HAL assistance

Signature Charter

The signature charter for scientific publications by authors belonging to the research structures of the University of Montpellier was validated in 2016 and updated in March 2021. The challenge of a standardized signature is a major one for identifying publications from the University and research organizations in bibliometric surveys, evaluations and international rankings.

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Toolbox

Open Access publishing

LRN

Publishers' open archive policies

Find your post-print

Predatory publishers