The Ministry of Higher Education and Research (MESR) publishes the results of the French Open Science Monitor for 2024. For the sixth consecutive year, it measures the rate of French research publications in open access. Since the 2022 edition, it has also offered indicators relating to the opening of doctoral theses, research data and codes and software associated with publications. This year, for the first time, the monitor introduces the monitoring of the adoption of open science policies by institutions.

According to the 2024 edition of the French Open Science Monitor (BSO), 67% of the 160,000 French research publications published in 2023 with a Crossref DOI are open access in December 2024, a slight increase (+1.5 points) compared to the previous year (Figure 1).

Figure 1 – Open access rate of French research publications, with a Crossref DOI, published during the previous year, by observation year

Source : French Open Science Monitor, CC-BY MESR, https://frenchopensciencemonitor.esr.gouv.fr/  

The proportion of open access publications varies significantly from one discipline to another, with for example 80% of publications in open access in Mathematics and 52% in Social Sciences, but each discipline remains at a stable open access rate. On the other hand, it should be noticed that open access via the publisher platform increases (52% of publications; + 5 points), while depositing the publications in an open archive stagnates (47% of publications). This is a trend already observed last year which continues.

Looking at the distribution by type of publication, we see that the open access rate remains stable, at a high level, for publications of articles in a journal (72%). On the other hand, it has decreased with regard to books (Figure 2). The generalisation of open access to research publications, one of the axes of the national open science strategy, therefore remains an objective to be pursued.

Figure 2. Evolution of the open access rate of French publications, with a Crossref DOI, by type of publication

Source : French Open Science Monitor, CC-BY MESR, https://frenchopensciencemonitor.esr.gouv.fr/publications/general    

In the health field, the share of clinical trials that posted a result and/or declared a research publication in a public register, within 3 years after the end of the trial, remains low and has dropped by 8 points (from 52% to 44% of trials sharing their results within 3 years; Figure 3).

Figure 3. Share of registered and completed clinical trials that posted a result and/or declared a scientific publication within 3 years after the end of the clinical trial by year of completion of the trial

Source : French Open Science Monitor, CC-BY MESR, https://frenchopensciencemonitor.esr.gouv.fr/health 

Among the publications published in 2023 that mention the creation of a dataset, the share of publications declaring its availability is 25%, with an increase of 3 points compared to the previous year (Figure 4). It should be noted that the presence of this statement does not guarantee the effective sharing of data, but its increased presence highlights a greater awareness of the importance of the role of research data linked to scientific publications.

Figure 4 : Proportion of French publications that mention sharing a dataset by publication year

Source : French Open Science Monitor, CC-BY MESR,  https://barometredelascienceouverte.esr.gouv.fr/data-code

Regarding codes and software, the rate of publications published in 2023 that share them is 19% (stable compared to the previous year). Software plays a key role in research, of which it is at the same time a tool, a result and an object of study. It also appears that in 2022, more than 40% of French publications use code or software for research purposes.

The indicators relating to data and software, resulting from a pioneering methodology based on text mining, are considered to be in beta version, which means that the methodology is still being refined.

This year, the monitor publishes for the first time some indicators aimed at monitoring open science policies adopted by Higher Education and Research institutions. In 2024, 57.55% of the considered institutions, have an open science policy. There has been a clear increase in this percentage, particularly since the release of the second National Plan for Open Science in 2021 (the period indicated in yellow in Figure 5; in the same figure, the period of the first National Plan for Open Science, between 2018 and 2021, is shown in green).

Figure 5 : Evolution of the number of institutions which have adopted an open science policy; the reference year is the year of a first open science policy

Source :  French Open Science Monitor, CC-BY MESR,  https://frenchopensciencemonitor.esr.gouv.fr/declinaisons/institutional-policy 

Issued from a survey conducted in early 2024 by the ministry (DOI: 10.52949/80; see also the associated blog post), this data is updated or enriched through reports made by the institutions (in particular by writing to the address coso@recherche.gouv.fr) and by systematic monitoring by the ministry.

To find out more:

• Consult the open science monitor
• Consult theMESR Flash note (In French)