HEGEL : A Journal for Integrative Medicine, Sustainable and Whole Health

Introduction/Objectives HEGEL (Healthcare, Environment, Global health, Ethics & Science, Lifestyle) is an independent, French-language scientific journal devoted to integrative health: a whole-person-centered approach to health that brings together conventional care and evidence-based complementary approaches within a holistic and sustainable framework. This work presents its editorial project, organization and prospects for development. Methodology: HEGEL has adopted a nonprofit, volunteer-led, participatory and multidisciplinary publishing model, bringing together researchers, physicians, pharmacists and other healthcare professionals (around thirty volunteers). The HEGEL journal brings together stakeholders in integrative health to encourage meaningful dialogue across society and foster a better understanding of the challenges of CURE and CARE, in support of a sustainable approach to whole-person health. Its transdisciplinary sections define its scope: health practices, general medicine, integrative oncology and dentistry, traditional medicine, humanities and social sciences, environmental issues and the exposome, among others. It constitutes a shared space for the exchange of knowledge, open to professionals and the wider public. This association-based approach establishes a shared editorial resource: independent, free for authors and accessible across disciplinary and professional boundaries. Its quality is underpinned by a dedicated charter, a scientific and ethics committee, and two expert reviewers per submitted article. The journal welcomes a variety of formats: research articles, essays, philosophical reflections, clinical case studies, research protocols, narrative reviews, innovative contributions, fact sheets, interviews, news and book reviews… to shed light, without undue simplification, on the connections that shape health practices and policies. Results and Discussion: Published on CAIRN, HEGEL is listed in both the ‘Science, Technology and Medicine’ and ‘Humanities and Social Sciences’ collections, to which many French-speaking universities subscribe. Already indexed or listed in several scientific databases (Pascal, Google Scholar, DOAR, ROAR), with PubMed indexing in development, it encourages bilingual French/English articles to reach an international audience. Selected articles in each issue are available through open access. All content becomes freely accessible after three years. This dynamic journal publishes four issues per year, each approximately 140 pages long. This vitality was reflected in the first HEGEL conference, “Integrative Health: Let’s Talk About It!”, held in Aubagne–Marseille on May 23, 2026. Free and open to the public, the event brought together more than 150 participants for roundtable discussions, testimony from a patient expert, poster presentations, exhibitions and artistic creations arising from participatory research Conclusion and Outlook: HEGEL aims to expand its international reach, build collaborations beyond the French-speaking world and develop its bilingual publications. In keeping with its participatory model, the journal also invites new volunteers to help sustain this shared editorial endeavor and advance integrative health.