The partners of the ’Accord national pour l’accès ouvert en France’ (National Open Access Agreement in France) have renewed the agreement for a further five-year term until 31 December 2026. The Ministère de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche (the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research - MESR), the Couperin consortium, the Agence bibliographique de l'enseignement supérieur (Abes) and EDP Sciences confirm they will continue to work closely to support open access publication of French research.
The Subscribe-to-Open (S2O) open access model plays a more prominent role this time and is quickly becoming an important pillar of the agreement. Several journals participating in the agreement are owned by learned societies, which support S2O. For example, the Société de Mathématiques Appliquées et Industrielles (SMAI) with which EDP Sciences publishes a number of maths journals. Astronomy & Astrophysics is another high-profile S2O journal in the agreement and additional journals will also transition to S2O in 2023.
S2O reflects an emphasis on open access models that do not rely on article processing charges (APCs). EDP Sciences was an early adopter of S2O and is pleased to see it making a positive impact in a range of contexts.
Another notable aspect of the new agreement is unlimited open access publication (previously capped) for corresponding authors of member institutions. They can publish their work free of charge in 31 participating journals. (Members also enjoy full “read” access to a further 24 journals.) Without doubt, articles published under the agreement contribute to the growing proportion of open access content published by EDP Sciences. In 2021, this represented 65% of all publications. Journals which join EDP Sciences, such as the newly-arrived Journal of the European Optical Society-Rapid Publications, are also keen to join the agreement.
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