HAL is 25 years old

2026 is a special year for HAL as it marks the 25th anniversary of its existence and work on sharing, innovation and collaboration in the service of research.

HAL – a national open archive

This platform was established by the CNRS and is supported by the Centre for Direct Scientific Communication (CCSD). It is now considered an essential pillar of knowledge dissemination.

• As part of national plans for open science and the policies of institutions and funding bodies (like the ANR), HAL has established itself as the leading open archive in France, as evidenced by the network of over 150 research and higher education institutions that manage their publications via a HAL portal, and as confirmed in particular by the Open Science Barometer.
• A third of the publications listed in HAL are published in full text. This illustrates the level of uptake by researchers, supported by incentive policies like that of the CNRS through its Annual Report on Researchers’ Activities (CRAC).

Today, HAL is a repository of over 1.6 million documents, comprising mainly scientific articles, conference papers, preprints, book chapters and books, and software.

A strong commitment to transparency and reproducibility

HAL’s work involves far more than simple archiving alone. The platform actively helps link publications, datasets and software, all of which enhances the transparency and reproducibility of research. It facilitates the accurate attribution of scientific contributions and encourages best authorship practices by systematically integrating persistent identifiers like ORCID.

Hal is expanding its reach through strategic international partnerships with major stakeholders like arXiv, OpenAIRE, PubMed and RePEc and, also, nationally through collaborations with Recherche Data Gouv, Nakala and Software Heritage. Such collaborations help enhance HAL’s functionalities and ensure optimal interoperability with open science ecosystems.

Finally, Hal’s CoreTrustSeal certification demonstrates its commitment to rigorous and sustainable data management, giving researchers and institutions a reliable framework for sharing and promoting researchers’ work.

A ‘Livre d’Or’ comments book

This anniversary is also for the researchers, PhD students, librarians and research support staff who bring this platform to life on a daily basis and make it an essential tool for the dissemination of knowledge.

To mark this anniversary, the digital comments book ‘Spécial 25 ans de HAL‘ has been made for anyone who wishes to share a memory, tell us what HAL means to them, or simply leave a trace of their visit. Such contributions will be invaluable.

The comments book will be available throughout the year. Your messages will then be compiled and showcased to celebrate this important milestone together as they testify to the diversity and wealth of uses of HAL and to its community’s commitment.

Please click here to take part. You can write in French or English, and add a photo if you would like to. Please don’t forget to sign your name! A short message is enough – the display is designed to be read on any device.

Let’s continue opening up science together!