Public scholarly publishing as a pillar of Open Science: the French Public Scientific Editors Alliance (ALEF)

The French Public Scientific Editors Alliance (Alef), created in 2024, brings together 57 public scholarly publishing structures attached to research institutions. As part of the Open Science movement, Alef promotes a non-profit, community-driven model of scientific publishing that ensures editorial independence, peer review quality, and wide dissemination of research outputs. This poster examines how a recently established national alliance such as Alef positions itself within the evolving landscape of Open Access publishing. It presents Alef’s key missions and activities, focusing on its engagement with sustainable publishing models, including Diamond Open Access, and its role in supporting bibliodiversity. By situating Alef within a network of partners at the French, European, and International levels, the poster explores the conditions under which such an initiative may engage with and contribute to ongoing structuring dynamics in Open Access. In this perspective, it addresses current challenges related to digital transformation, visibility, and economic sustainability, while also emphasizing the importance of maintaining national capacities in scholarly publishing as a matter of scientific sovereignty. More broadly, Alef can be understood as part of a wider effort to foster a strong, diverse, and coordinated European Open Access publishing ecosystem.