L'Harmattan Open Access

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Publication guidelines and process

L’Harmattan Open Access is a publishing platform established for the open access publication of academic books – primarily monographs, edited volumes and scholarly text editions. The aim of the publication process is to ensure that manuscripts undergo academic quality assurance, formatting, standardised metadata tagging, DOI registration, online publication, international distribution and long-term archiving.

The platform offers authors and editors a book publishing environment that simultaneously promotes academic visibility, discoverability and citability, whilst meeting open access requirements. The publishing service is specifically designed for academic books and is based on collaboration between partner institutions, editorial boards, libraries and infrastructure providers.

We are able to carry out the steps of the publication process described below according to the following timetable. The publication time for final manuscripts that have undergone the peer-review process and been revised is on average 10–14 weeks, provided that all necessary content and information are available.

  1. Peer review process: up to 12 weeks from the submission of the manuscript (depending on the cooperation between the relevant editorial board, the reviewers and the authors/editors)

  2. Editing: 4–6 weeks

  3. Layout, cover design and proofreading: 4–6 weeks

  4. Open access publication and launch of online distribution: 2 weeks

The inclusion of individual open access publications in research and indexing databases varies greatly from database to database in terms of turnaround time, over which our publisher has no control. Some databases operate with a turnaround time of a few weeks, whilst others may take over a year to provide feedback.

If required, printing in Hungary can also be arranged; the turnaround time for this is 2–3 weeks from the completion of the final layout and cover.

The main steps in the publication process:

  • Establishing contact and defining the publication objective. The author, editor or institutional partner indicates their intention to publish a new book or book series in open access format. Depending on the author’s affiliation, the forms of funding available and the genre of the publication, the publisher proposes a Diamond OA solution based on an institutional or other agreement. If these are not available, the publisher prepares a bespoke quote (Gold OA).

  • If an agreement is reached, the publisher enters into a contract with the authors or institutions. The publisher endeavours to publish as many Diamond OA-funded volumes as possible. Information on funding models and costs is provided on the Publication Costs page.

  • Series concept, peer review process, editorial board decision. The academic quality assurance of the manuscript or book proposal is the responsibility of the series editors and the editorial board, in accordance with the peer review guidelines agreed jointly with the publisher (Peer Review Policy). The research institution responsible for the book series and the editorial board are responsible for developing the series concept, collecting and managing manuscripts and related documents and data, commissioning independent reviewers, and carrying out academic and content editing.

Information on the quality assurance process relating to conflicts of interest, independence and the handling of problematic cases is summarised on the Publication Ethics page.

​​The formal requirements for manuscripts are detailed in the downloadable Manuscript Submission Guidelines document. The final pages of the guidelines deal specifically with the formal criteria for open access publication.

  • Formatting and technical checks. The publisher checks whether the manuscript, which has been accepted following peer review and is intended to be final in terms of content, complies with the manuscript submission guidelines, the conditions for open access publication, and the rules on metadata and reference management. If necessary, the publisher may request formatting corrections or additional metadata.

  • Manuscript preparation. Manuscript preparation includes academic editing, language editing, proofreading, typographic design, layout and cover design. The division of work is flexible: L’Harmattan Publishing can provide a full-service package, but in some cases these tasks may be carried out by the institutional partner or university press in accordance with jointly agreed editorial and technical specifications.

  • Metadata, identifiers and creation of a publication page. The publisher compiles the volume’s detailed metadata, ensures the registration and management of ISBN, ISSN and DOI identifiers, verifies that the reference list complies with Crossref standards, provides funding and licence details (Creative Commons), and applies additional persistent identifiers (e.g. ORCID, ROR).

We ask the author/editor to complete the form below once typesetting and proofreading have been finalised, in order to enrich the metadata and register the DOI. 
https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/rVnY1hjkrx

  • Online publication. The book will be made freely available on the L’Harmattan Open Access platform via a dedicated data page (and, upon request, its individual chapters and articles on separate pages with unique DOIs). The publication will include a digital object identifier (DOI), detailed metadata, a downloadable or viewable full-text PDF, a complete bibliography, exportable metadata and real-time download statistics through the OPERAS Metrics Widget.

  • Distribution, dissemination and archiving. The published volume will be included in international academic databases, repositories and search engines. In partnership with Thoth Open Metadata and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Library and Information Centre (MTA KIK), the publisher will ensure the volume is submitted to the OAPEN, DOAB, ProQuest, EBSCO, Google Books, OCLC, Web of Science; the Thoth Archiving Network, the Internet Archive, the MTA KIK REAL repository and numerous other institutional repositories’ archiving databases; library catalogues; shared discovery services (e.g. MTA KIK COMPASS); and national science bibliographies (MTMT). (Distribution)

Printed versions of volumes published in collaboration with Éditions L’Harmattan (Paris) are distributed internationally (via a print-on-demand service, Amazon distribution and the Harmathèque database) and are assigned a French ISBN and in the case of series publications an ISSN.

The publications are featured on the publisher’s social media platforms (LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube); where requested, there is the option to publish blog posts, produce podcast discussions, or organise in-person or online book launches or other scholarly and educational events. (Open Access Blog, Nyílt Forrás Podcast)

Publications that have also been published in print can be distributed, upon request, via the publisher’s own bookshop (1053 Budapest, Kossuth Lajos u. 14–16), its online shop (harmattan.hu), and through Hungarian book distribution networks (e.g. Libri, Líra).

  • Copyright and licence of use. The copyright rights to the works are set out in the publishing contract and the publication’s imprint, in consultation with the authors or institutions concerned. The publisher supports the retention of copyright rights by authors and editors. The publisher’s copyright relates to publishing activities (e.g. layout, cover design).

The publications are released under a Creative Commons licence. The type of licence is specified in the agreement concluded with the author, editor or institutional partner, and is recorded in the publication and its metadata. The publisher recommends the use of the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.

For every volume, the publisher includes the licence information, the copyright statement, the DOI and the details required for correct citation in the publications’ metadata.



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