EDP Sciences

EDP Sciences is a French scientific publishing house with roots in the early twentieth century that developed into a multidisciplinary publisher of journals, books, and conference proceedings. It operates at the intersection of European research institutions, international learned societies, and academic communities in fields such as Physics, Astronomy, Chemistry, Biology, and Engineering. The press has collaborated with universities, research organizations, and professional societies across France, Germany, United Kingdom, United States, and other countries.

History

Founded in the aftermath of World War I, the publisher evolved through interactions with institutions like Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, Conseil National de la Recherche Scientifique, and learned societies such as the Société Française de Physique and Société Chimique de France. During the interwar and postwar periods it engaged with publishers and organizations including Cambridge University Press, Elsevier, Springer Science+Business Media, and Oxford University Press as the landscape of scholarly communication changed after events like the Second World War and the expansion of European research frameworks such as the European Union research programmes. In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries the press negotiated partnerships and distribution arrangements involving institutions such as the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and multinational publishers, responding to transformations driven by digital platforms pioneered by companies like IEEE and initiatives from National Institutes of Health-linked repositories. Its timeline intersects with milestones such as the rise of digital indexing by Scopus and citation tracking by Web of Science.

Publishing Activities

The house publishes peer-reviewed periodicals, monographs, textbooks, and proceedings for scientific societies including collaborations with organizations similar to the Royal Astronomical Society, American Physical Society, and national academies like the Académie des Sciences (France). Its editorial model balances relationships with editorial boards drawn from universities such as Sorbonne University, École Polytechnique, University of Cambridge, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and with conference organizers from events like the International Astronomical Union symposia and European Geosciences Union meetings. Distribution and indexing link works to aggregators such as Google Scholar, PubMed, and library consortia including OCLC and national libraries like the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The publisher's operations engage with standards bodies and identifiers such as CrossRef, ORCID, and DOI infrastructures.

Journals and Books

The catalogue spans journals in subjects aligned with titles found across portfolios of major scholarly publishers, covering subfields associated with institutions like CERN, Max Planck Society, and research groups at California Institute of Technology. Its books list includes conference proceedings comparable to volumes produced for meetings such as the International Conference on High Energy Physics and textbooks used in curricula at universities like University of Oxford and École Normale Supérieure. Journals are peer-reviewed by editors and reviewers affiliated with research centers including Observatoire de Paris, Institut Pasteur, and national laboratories such as Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The publisher ensures discoverability through indexing in services like Scopus, Web of Science, and specialist indexes maintained by societies including the Royal Society and the American Chemical Society.

Open Access and Digital Initiatives

Responding to mandates from funders and frameworks like Horizon 2020 and policies from agencies such as the European Research Council, the publisher developed open access options and digital platforms enabling article-level access and licensing aligned with initiatives championed by organizations like Plan S and repositories modeled after arXiv. Its digital strategy integrates metadata standards used by CrossRef and interoperability with institutional repositories at universities like Université de Genève and consortia such as SCOAP3. The publisher adopted persistent identifiers (including DOI and ORCID) and implemented submission workflows interoperable with manuscript systems used by societies such as the Institute of Physics and professional networks like ResearchGate.

Organizational Structure and Ownership

The governance structure mirrors arrangements found in society-led publishers and academic presses, with oversight from a board including representatives from partner societies and research institutions such as CNRS, university departments at Université Paris-Saclay, and international partners in Germany and the United Kingdom. Commercial and non-profit stakeholders—comparable to those behind presses like Taylor & Francis and collaborative platforms associated with Directory of Open Access Journals—influence strategic decisions on journal portfolios and open access policies. Operational units coordinate editorial, production, marketing, and distribution functions interfacing with supply-chain partners like Ingram Content Group and indexing services provided by Clarivate. The entity participates in community governance dialogues alongside organizations such as COAR and SPARC.

Category:Publishing companies of France