HAL as an Open Infrastructure for Automated Open-Science Monitoring: Insights from Université Paris-Saclay's BiSO

In a context marked by the evolution of research evaluation frameworks—including the integration of artificial intelligence, new bibliometric indicators, technological challenges (such as interoperability and data preservation), and geopolitical tensions (access restrictions, scientific sovereignty)—academic libraries require certified, interoperable, and sustainable infrastructures. 

HAL (https://hal.science), the French multidisciplinary open archive, stands out as a unique model in Europe for addressing these challenges. Certified with the Core Trust Seal and compliant with the POSI principles, HAL does more than provide access to over 1.5 million full-text documents: it equips libraries with practical tools to implement Open Science mandates covering publications, datasets, and software. 

As a national research infrastructure (HAL+ label), HAL plays a central role in France’s Open Science policy. Its governance, overseen by the CCSD (a consortium including CNRS, INRIA, and INRAE) in collaboration with the Ministry of Higher Education, national funding agencies, and over 150 academic institutions, ensures its longevity and sustainability. 

HAL promotes the dissemination and reuse of publication metadata through APIs and the use of FAIR standards and norms, enhancing its interoperability and integration into international research ecosystems. 

Libraries play a pivotal role in this ecosystem, mobilizing over 1,000 librarians to ensure the quality of metadata, thereby aligning HAL with national policies and local research needs. 

Université Paris-Saclay, one of Europe’s largest research-intensive universities (with 230 research units, over 8,000 researchers, and 13,000 scientific publications annually), has been fully committed to Open Science for several years (DORA, Barcelona Declaration, etc.). Its Open Science strategy is formalized in a framework document and supported by the Open Science Support Service within the Department of Libraries, Information, and Open Science (DiBISO, https://www.universite-paris-saclay.fr/recherche/science-ouverte). This service is embodied in the Open Science Research Referents Network (3RSO), a group of librarians involved in promoting Open Science. 

Within this context, DiBISO developed the BiSO (Bilan Science Ouverte), an annual report that provides each laboratory with an overview of its Open Access scientific output based on data from HAL. Designed as an assessment tool, this report adapts to the scale of laboratories and can be generated for any corpus of publications deposited in HAL. Its added value lies in its automated yet customizable nature. 

The first version features 12 metrics and visualizations, including the open access rates of articles and conference proceedings, information on the economic models of journals, and maps and lists of international collaborations. These are supplemented by a customized overview of Open Science initiatives undertaken by each laboratory, along with recommendations for improvement. 

The code (https://github.com/dibiso-upsaclay/dibisoreporting) is fully open-source and uses HAL data enriched with information from open databases like OpenAlex (https://openalex.org/). An open access preprint (https://universite-paris-saclay.hal.science/hal-05336463) details the technical choices that led to this automated and reproducible tool. 

BiSO operates through the collaboration of researchers who deposit their work in HAL and the 3RSO referents who consolidate and enhance the data to produce a comprehensive and qualitative report. The benefits are immediate: laboratories receive rich, personalized reports that help them support Open Science dynamics, develop an open archiving culture, and highlight their Open Science strengths and actions. The 3RSO referents save time and strengthen their ties with their communities. 

In this presentation, we focused on the methodology and selected metrics, and the data needed to produce them. We explored how these components enhance the monitoring, valorization, and institutional support of Open Science, thereby advancing global knowledge accessibility.