The French Law for a Digital Republic is 10 years old!
For a decade, the legal framework for open science in France has been making it easier for researchers to adopt these practices.
On 7 October 2026, the French Law for a Digital Republic went into effect. Its article 30, which became article L. 533-4 of the Research Code, created the current legal framework for open science in France.
Scholarly publications
For ten years, researchers working in France have enjoyed a new right: the right to openly share a version of their research articles online, no matter what contract they have signed with the publisher. Prior to 2016, if a researcher wished to retain the right to share any version of their own articles, they had to negotiate with the publisher. This is still the case in many other countries.
In France, thanks to this decade-old legal framework, it is far simpler to make scholarly articles available in open access: the author accepted manuscript (postprint) can be shared online, via an open archive, after an embargo period of 6 months in science, technology and medicine or 12 months in the humanities and social sciences. There is no need to request authorisation from the publisher.
Today, at the University of Lille, 41% of the 64,853 articles referenced in LillOA, our portal in the national open archive HAL, contain a full-text file. These files include both versions of record published in natively open-access journals and author accepted manuscripts from all types of scholarly journals. The Law for a Digital Republic undoubtedly contributes significantly to this level of open access for articles.
Research data
The French Law for a Digital Republic has also increased open access to research data. Article 30 of the law established an important principle: under certain conditions, data produced as part of research funded at least half by public funds may be made available and reused. This applies to data that is not already protected by a specific right and whose release does not infringe upon, for example, privacy, confidentiality, or security.
Since then, opening and sharing data has become a pillar of open science, facilitating the dissemination of research results and enabling their reuse.