Publishing another way: the epic of Episciences and overlay journals
In order to celebrate ten years of Episciences, we organise a meeting on the 30th and 31st of March 2023 about the platform, the journals it hosts and about editorial models.
In the context of the profound digital transformation of scientific research, and in particular in enhanced knowledge dissemination, the epic of Episciences finds its roots in the beginning of the years 2000, when scientists want to take back in hand the whole process of publication. Nowadays, the platform contains close to 30 journals, covering a wide range of disciplines, from mathematics and computer science to the humanities and social sciences, among which diverse subjects like environmental studies and mechanical engineering.
Episciences works with the model of the so-called overlay journals. The concept rests on open archives such as arXiv, HAL or Zenodo that give access to scientific manuscripts (preprints). While this model is recognized and used for over a decade in certain scientific communities, its remarkable possibilities in terms of quality and the transparency of the editorial processes, the dissemination and the accessibility deserve to be considered more widely. Indeed, this approach conforms to the so-called diamond way, in which an open access scientific journal charges no subscription fees and also no publishing fees from the author (Article Processing Charge, APC) and is controlled by the scientific community. Episciences favors also complete openness of its publications in all stages of their production, from the submission of the manuscript until the final publication in the journal considered. By taking these steps, this gives back to the scientific community the capacity of focusing its efforts on one of its essential missions: the evaluation and the publication of scientific articles of high quality.
Throughout the presentations, the experience reports and a round table bringing together the journals that have made the choice to join the platform Episciences, these days aim to focus on the status of open access scientific publication, to consider the perspectives of the model of overlay journals and to place Episciences in the landscape of open science, on a national, European and international scale.
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