Sorbonne University demonstrates its support for open science, open research and open rankings

Sorbonne University has 6,681 publications among the top 10% most cited over the period 2019-2022. Sorbonne University is also the leading university in continental Europe in terms of the number of open access publications (+35,000 publications).

The Leiden Ranking Open Edition is fully transparent and in line with Sorbonne University’s commitment to the development of open access, and shedding proprietary “closed” databases. 

The data underlying the ranking, obtained from the OpenAlex database, is completely open, and so are the source codes of the algorithms used to calculate the indicators included in the ranking.

Sorbonne University’s ambitious open access policy has included our signature of the CoARA agreement on research assessment and the Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information. The University had already anticipated one of the commitments of the Barcelona Declaration by unsubscribing from the proprietary “Web of Science” and instead using open tools such as OpenAlex.

At the end of September, Sorbonne University hosted the Paris Conference on Open Research Information, welcoming signatories and supporters of the Barcelona Declaration from all over the world. It gave them the opportunity to draft a roadmap with concrete actions to implement the commitments of the Declaration and accelerate the transition to openness of research information. By taking a strong stance regarding commercial publishers and unsubscribing from closed and proprietary databases, Sorbonne University gives an example for other institutions to follow.