Episciences opens a new chapter by welcoming “Le partenariat de soin avec le patient : analyses (PSPA)”, the first health sciences journal to join the platform.
Promoted by the Centre for Innovation in Partnership with Patients and the Public (CI3P) at the University of the Côte d’Azur’s Faculty of Medicine, PSPA publishes articles in French on health sciences at the micro (clinical), meso (services, networks and organisation) and macro (health policy) levels.
The journal’s editors are particularly sensitive to the financial exploitation of health sciences through the capitalisation of scientific content. For this reason, PSPA has committed itself to participating actively in open science by publishing its content in open access on a dedicated space on the website of the University of the Côte d’Azur. Since 2020, the journal has published seven issues, which are now available in diamond open access on Episciences.
For PSPA, the equation is simple: research funded by public money should be returned to citizens. By joining the platform, PSPA is taking a new step in its open science publishing policy. Thanks to Episciences’ services, it is adopting the overlay model: future issues will only accept articles that have been previously deposited in an open archive compatible with Episciences. This link with open archives allows readers to access all versions of a scientific publication. The research process and editorial workflow are now public and accessible.
PSPA has adopted a unique approach to medical research: participatory science. Patients play an active role in the research process. “Participatory research puts citizens at the centre, so it seemed natural to us that the journal should be accessible to everyone, and the Episciences platform makes this possible,” says Luigi Flora, Editor-in-Chief of the journal.
With the launch of this new journal, Episciences continues its expansion into the health sciences. Episciences is compatible with bioRxiv and medRxiv since 2023, two open archives or preprint servers dedicated to basic life sciences and clinical research. The PSPA example demonstrates the benefits of the overlay model for transparency in health sciences research processes.