| Votes | By | Price | Discipline | Year Launched |
| Center for Open Electronic Publishing | OPEN SOURCE | Humanities, Social Sciences |
OpenEdition is one of the world’s most significant open-access infrastructures dedicated to humanities and social sciences (HSS). Supported by the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and academic partners, OpenEdition provides a comprehensive ecosystem of platforms for open-access journals, books, research blogs, and academic events—offering an essential digital gateway for global HSS scholarship.
1. Mission and Vision
OpenEdition’s mission is ambitious yet clear:
to provide open, multilingual, and freely accessible scholarly communication channels for humanities and social sciences.
It aims to:
- Support open-access publishing
- Increase global visibility for HSS research
- Provide sustainable publishing tools for scholars and institutions
- Bridge the gap between academic and public audiences
- Foster multilingual communication in disciplines often overshadowed by English-centric systems
OpenEdition stands out as both a content aggregator and a publishing infrastructure—supporting the full lifecycle of academic dissemination.
2. Four Core Platforms
OpenEdition integrates four major portals, each serving a specific aspect of scholarly communication:
1. OpenEdition Journals
A large collection of peer-reviewed HSS journals, many of which are fully open access.
Covers fields such as:
- Anthropology
- History
- Sociology
- Literature
- Political science
- Philosophy
- Geography
2. OpenEdition Books
A growing library of open-access academic books and monographs—crucial for disciplines where long-form scholarship dominates.
3. Hypotheses
A massive blogging platform for researchers and research groups.
Hosts:
- Fieldwork diaries
- Project blogs
- Working papers
- Methodological notes
- Public scholarship
It has become one of the most vibrant HSS blogging communities in the world.
4. Calenda
A scholarly events platform covering:
- Conferences
- Seminars
- Summer schools
- Workshops
- Calls for papers
- Academic announcements
Together, these four services create a complete, interconnected research ecosystem.
3. Strengths
1. Deep disciplinary alignment
Unlike many general-purpose scholarly platforms, OpenEdition is built specifically for HSS needs—where qualitative content, monographs, and multilingual communication are central.
2. Strong support for open access
Promotes Gold and Diamond OA models, reducing financial barriers for authors.
3. Multilingual and global
Supports research in several languages—particularly French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and English—making it far more inclusive than English-dominated repositories.
4. Combines publishing and discovery
Few platforms offer such an integrated suite of:
- Journals
- Monographs
- Blogs
- Research events
5. Sustainable nonprofit model
Operated by academic institutions rather than commercial publishers, ensuring alignment with scholarly values.
4. Limitations
- Focused mostly on humanities and social sciences, not suitable for STEM researchers
- Some journals operate under freemium models (open text, restricted services)
- Interface can be complex for new users navigating multiple portals
- Metadata consistency varies across participating publishers