Enhancing museum research with the HAL platform

The principle of an open archive

An open archive is a free, open-access documentary database on the Internet. Researchers can submit their scientific work in compliance with copyright or their bibliographic references. The deposit in an open archive is prompted by the Second National Open Science Plan 2021-2024.     

What is the HAL platform?

The HAL open archive is a multidisciplinary platform developed in 2001 by the Centre for Direct Scientific Communication (CCSD) of the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). HAL is a research infrastructure of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research supported by the CNRS, the Institut de recherche en sciences et technologies du numérique (Inria) and the Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement (NWRI).

The HAL platform is intended for the deposit, dissemination and consultation of scientific articles, published or not, from French or foreign educational and research institutions or public or private laboratories.

HAL may receive, in compliance with the rights of authors and publishers, both visual and sound data, such as videos, images or soundtracks, as well as textual documents, whether articles, book extracts, research reports, conference proceedings, maps or theses.

Consult the document types proposed on HAL

Why drop off on the HAL platform?

HAL makes it possible to ensure free and free access to research and to improve the visibility of museums in the academic world, thanks to a very good referencing by general or specialized search engines.

For the researcher, using HAL has several interests:

• promote the open and unhindered dissemination of its publications and guarantee their sustainable access;
• improve the visibility and exploitation of its research;
• contribute concretely to the dissemination of knowledge and knowledge to all audiences;
• generate an updated CV;
• mastering one’s digital identity;
• ensure legal protection by guaranteeing the authorship of its research.

For the institution, working with HAL provides the opportunity to:

• manage their own bibliography;
• to ensure the continuity of access to its search results with a stable URL and a guaranteed backup of the contents by a permanent archiving;
• facilitate the reuse of public data;
• be informed of new publications through an alert system;
• extracting lists of publications, particularly useful for producing activity reports;
• increase the visibility of its research.

For the user, consulting on HAL allows:

• navigating on a platform containing a variety of documents;
• to complete its research;
• to consult several scientific works free of charge.

How to deposit on the HAL platform?

The question of rights

Before depositing on HAL, you must make sure you have the right. Thus, if you are not the sole author of a publication, it is necessary to have the permission of the co-authors upstream.
In the case of a publication by a publishing house, it is important to inquire about the conditions of distribution. Since October 7, 2016, the Law for a Digital Republic allows the possibility of disseminating on an open archive the scientific writings published in journals. A maximum embargo period of 12 months is required for the humanities and social sciences and six months for the sciences, technology and medicine. Nevertheless, the author has the right to file the preprint of his publication. In some cases, the editor may also allow a postprint version (version accepted by the editor for publication). The publication can be referenced upon release.

Consult the information on filing and legal matters

Deposit on HAL

Upstream, it is necessary to create an account on the HAL platform. You can then deposit a file and fill in the metadata (type of document, title of the publication, relevant domains, etc.).
Next, make sure that the file has the minimum information such as the title, the names of the authors and the full text of the document. When the document is deposited, metadata is automatically extracted from the deposited file. They can be supplemented or modified.

All deposited and accepted documents are archived on the HAL platform, regardless of the repository interface used:
-       HAL ;
-       HAL-SHS for the Human and Social Sciences;
-       HAL Theses for theses and HDR;
-       MediHAL for images, videos and sounds;
- institutional portals.

In addition, a single repository may be visible in several collections or portals depending on the metadata entered (discipline, type of document, affiliation of authors, etc.).

Deposit on HAL is a service that must be done in compliance with the rules of intellectual property. The depositor is responsible for what he deposits on HAL. This open archive principle is both a service that makes it possible to increase the scientific impact of research work but it is also a legal protection, which guarantees prior art or authorship for example.
Consult the information on the deposit on HAL are searchable

Deposit visual or audio data on MediHAL

MediHAL allows to deposit visual and sound data (images, videos and sounds), produced as part of scientific research. These are stored in a secure repository, with security copies of files and their metadata. It is also possible to geo-reference images deposited on MediHAL. The maximum file size must not exceed 200 MB, but it is not an obstacle because each user has a space to temporarily deposit their visual and sound data, while waiting for the deposit.

Make all its scientific production visible with the HAL "collection"

 The HAL collection is a web site, consisting of a set of documents, which makes it possible to make visible all the scientific production of an institution, a research unit, from a laboratory, etc. This research must have been deposited upstream on the HAL platform. The collection must be configured by the museum, via the collection manager. It can define menu tabs and graphic elements. A collection has a stable url that takes this form: http://hal.science/IDENTIFIER_de_la_collection

Consult the information about managing a HAL collection

Why create a museum-specific HAL collection?

A collection is a scientific showcase for the museum. The objective is to bring together the museum’s scientific publications and ensure their dissemination in order to offer a broad visibility on the research and studies conducted within it. The collection manager selects either manually or automatically. The selection, resulting in a «buffering» of several publications, allows to extract all the selected publications according to the predefined criteria, so that they stand out in the collection. The C2RMF and the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac Museum created their HAL collection.

How to create a HAL collection?

The manager must create a HAL account and request a stamp with the museum name. Once the collection is established, he can then link to it from the official website of the institution. The collection manager can manage repositories, evolutions, add useful links (media library catalogues, museum website) or propose thematic research.
The Centre for Direct Scientific Communication (CCSD) offers training for collection managers.

To consult thetraining offer

When creating a HAL collection, the CCSD team (hal.support@ccsd.cnrs.fr) is available to assist you.
You can also consult the instructions on the administration of a HAL collection.

Feedback from the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac Museum

The Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac Museum has a large scientific production that was not very visible, scattered and only partially accessible online. This work was disseminated through various channels (magazines, platforms, websites, etc.) that did not necessarily have an open science policy. The creation of a HAL collection for the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac has thus made it possible to have a single and permanent entry point centralizing all of this production with, as often as possible, access to the full text.

After the creation of a HAL collection using the visual identity of the museum’s website, the process – still in progress – began with the addition of documents already available, namely the work and memoirs of the fellows and journal articles. the aim being to gradually complete the collection with other types of documents (recorded conferences, book chapters...). In addition, the museum wishes to develop and enhance its collection through collaborations and partnerships. He was asked by the University Library of Languages and Civilizations (BULAC) to help create a transdisciplinary collection on Oceania in collaboration with the Joint Documentation Services (SCD) universities of French Polynesia and New Caledonia.

Consult the HAL collection of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum

Feedback from the Centre de recherche et de restauration des musées de France (C2RMF)

The Centre de recherche et de restauration des musées de France (C2RMF) initially had two HAL collections since December 2019. The first was for C2RMF and the second for European C2RMF projects. These collections were created with the help of the HAL support team. The C2RMF subsequently decided to combine these two collections into one. This work was done in-house. The advantage for the HAL collection is the possibility for the administrator to be able to customize the organization of the page (logo, widgets, menu, etc).

To help colleagues and researchers file their publications, but also to raise their awareness of open science issues, C2RMF has been working on a repository guide on HAL.

Consult the HAL collection of the Centre de recherche et de restauration des musées de France

The Institutional Portal: Another Opportunity to Leverage Research

An institutional portal is dedicated to institutions that are heavily involved in an open science policy and are of significant size. The development of a HAL portal requires an annual financial contribution and a long-term administrator. This format implies the possibility of being part of the Assembly of Partners of the Centre for Direct Scientific Communication (CCSD).  The creation of a portal must be submitted to the ESDC for approval.

Consult the iinformation on institutional portals
View information about the CCSD funding (for institutional portals)

Feedback from the National Museum of Natural History (MNHN)

Since 2007, the National Museum of Natural History has set up the HAL MNHN portal, which makes it possible to consult the publications of the Museum’s scientists and to file them online. This device allows to value the production of the institution and to have administrators who can intervene on the metadata. All scientific publications are located on the national HAL platform and automatically upload to the MNHN HAL portal. Note that this portal contains more scientific productions depending on the research units of the institution than museum collections.

Consult the HAL portal of the museum
Contact the HAL portal team of the National Museum of Natural History: hal@mnhn.fr
Consult the MNHN HAL Induction Guide