The following can become overlay journals on Episciences:
- Existing journals currently operating within a commercial publishing environment that wish to break free from it, or journals already operating under an open-access model that want to gain greater autonomy;
- Journals in the process of being created that seek an environment that favours a simple, flexible and highly visible implementation.
✅ Note :To be published in an overlay journal, an article must be available as Open Access priori to the peer review process. Authors must have previously deposited the full text of their article on a public open repository (preprint submission, read more here).
Eligibility criteria
1.Consistency with the Episciences publication model
- The journals have an informed knowledge of the Episciences Diamond model and its articulation with open repositories (overlay model).
- Open licenses are associated with articles (Episciences recommends the CC-BY license).
- Journals support the regular posting of content online.
2.Respect for open standards and good practice in scientific publishing
- The scientific evaluation of content is carried out by peers according to described and clearly displayed procedures.
- The composition and operating procedures of editorial bodies are publicly displayed.
- The journals publicly display their editorial line.
- Episciences pays particular attention to the procedures implemented to ensure the respect of scientific integrity (recommendations for peer-reviewing, constitution and availability of data, respect of COPE good practices, etc.).
3.Operational feasibility
- Journals have the resources to manage the editorial process.
- The title of the journal is owned by a non-profit legal entity.
4.Impact on the academic community
- Journal editorial boards must be international, or at the very least inter-institutional, to ensure that publications have the widest possible impact.
- Submission of articles to the journal must not be limited to authors from a single affiliation or type of affiliation.
Application evaluation process
1.First meeting to prepare the application
In the first stage, the applicants discuss their applications with the CCSD (via video conference) to verify the journal’s compatibility with Episciences.
2.Application form
In a second step, they must fill in an application form and provide all the elements necessary for the evaluation of their applications.
3.Review of the application by the scientific committee
The scientific committees of the relevant discipline organise the scientific evaluation of the application. In the absence of a scientific committee with expertise in the discipline in question, the Episciences Steering Committee solicits two scientific experts from outside Episciences.The CCSD provides internal expertise on the editorial project and its technical, legal and organisational feasibility.
4.Result of the process
The Episciences Steering Committee decides on the applications. It may request clarifications from the scientific committee (or from scientific experts if there is no existing scientific committee in the field of the journal) and from the CCSD. In the event of a dispute between the Steering Committee and the scientific committee regarding a journal’s application to Episciences, the members of both bodies will engage in discussions to reach a satisfactory and consensual solution for the stakeholders. The CCSD leadership is the last resort to make a final decision.
The Chair of the Steering Committee and the management of the CCSD will inform the journals of the decision taken and the reasons for it within a maximum of 30 days of the decision being made.