Which French-language scientific database should you choose?

In short:

1. No French scientific database covers every discipline. The right choice depends on the field: engineering, public research, or the humanities and social sciences.
2. In engineering, Techniques de l’Ingénieur is a database of applied articles written in French: more than 10,000 articles and practical sheets, selected by more than 80 committees and written by more than 3,500 authors.
3. For French public research, HAL (1.69 million full-text documents), theses.fr (487,031 defended theses) and Numdam (75,599 mathematics articles) are free.
4. In the humanities and social sciences, Persée (more than one million documents), Cairn.info (more than 600 journals and 20,000 books) and OpenEdition (676 journals, 16,607 books) dominate the French-language offer.

Comparison table of French-language scientific databases

Volumes are those displayed by each platform on 13 October 2026.

Why the French-language offer depends so much on the discipline

The supply of scientific databases in French is uneven. The humanities and social sciences have several large platforms, while the exact sciences and engineering mostly publish in English, in international databases.

University library guides reflect this imbalance. Most lists of “French-language” databases start with Persée, Cairn.info, OpenEdition and Isidore, four platforms focused on the humanities and social sciences.

Persée says so itself in its presentation:

“Persee.fr is a portal for disseminating scientific publications, mainly in the humanities and social sciences but also in earth and environmental sciences.” Source: Persée, “About” page, 2026 (translated from French).

For an engineer, a researcher in the exact sciences or an R&D team, the choice narrows to a few sources: HAL, theses.fr, Numdam for mathematics, and Techniques de l’Ingénieur for applied content. The English-language databases covered in our guide to reliable technical articles (IEEE Xplore, ScienceDirect) then complete these sources for the international state of the art, and the overview of peer-reviewed article platforms presents Scopus, Web of Science and DOAJ.

Techniques de l’Ingénieur, the French-language science and technology database for industry

Techniques de l’Ingénieur is a French publisher of scientific and technical documentation for engineers in industry, engineering offices and R&D. Its collection holds more than 10,000 reference articles and practical sheets, organised in thematic packages: automation and robotics, biomedical and pharma, construction, energy, materials, mechanical engineering, processes, environment and safety.

What sets it apart from the other databases in this comparison is the type of content. HAL, Numdam and Persée publish research results. Techniques de l’Ingénieur publishes articles commissioned from experts to explain a method, a process or a technology to a professional who has to apply it.

The publisher describes its editorial process: topics are chosen by more than 80 committees bringing together more than 200 scientific, academic and industrial advisers, then commissioned from named authors (more than 3,500) before review and validation by the committees. Packages are detailed on the Techniques de l’Ingénieur reference resources page.

Key features

• Language: content in French, with multilingual articles for part of the collection.
• Formats: enriched reference articles (tables, formulas, media), practical sheets, quizzes and personalised watch tools.
• Services: questions to experts included in the packages.
• Access: paid thematic packages, listed from €836 excluding VAT in October 2026.
• Libraries: the BnF lists Techniques de l’Ingénieur among its engineering databases, available remotely to Research Pass holders.

Free databases of French public research: HAL, theses.fr and Numdam

HAL is the multidisciplinary open archive run by the CCSD. On 13 October 2026 it displays 1,694,633 full-text scientific documents and 4,582,835 references. Researchers from French laboratories deposit their articles, conference papers and preprints there. HAL gives access to every type of French research document, from published articles to preprints, with a clearly indicated deposit status for each one.

theses.fr lists doctoral theses defended in France: 487,031 defended theses and 80,916 theses in progress in October 2026. It is the place to identify a laboratory’s recent work or the specialists of a topic. Full-text availability depends on each author’s choice.

Numdam is the French digital mathematics library. It gathers 75,599 articles in 120 periodicals, 706 books and 416 theses. Labelled CollEx since 2018, it also takes in articles from the Centre Mersenne journals one year after publication.

French-language humanities and social sciences platforms: Persée, Cairn.info and OpenEdition

Persée is a public service run by the University of Lyon, the CNRS and ENS de Lyon. Launched in 2005, it publishes nearly 400 collections, more than one million full-text open-access documents, and receives an average of 30 million visits a year. It mainly digitises heritage journal collections.

Cairn.info sells access to more than 600 journals and 20,000 books as annual bundles to 2,100 client institutions. Part of the content is free. The BnF also lists a separate science and technology offer, giving access to more than a thousand recent French-language books and textbooks from publishers such as Dunod, EDP Sciences, Lavoisier and De Boeck.

OpenEdition brings together four humanities and social sciences platforms. In October 2026 it displays 676 journals, 16,607 books and 5,140 research blogs. A large share of the content is open access.

Two tools complete these platforms. Isidore is a search engine that aggregates humanities and social sciences publications. Érudit, a Quebec platform, publishes French-language scholarly journals, mostly in the humanities and social sciences.

Which French-language scientific database for which profile

Engineers in design offices, methods or production

The need is for established rules: sizing, material selection, processes, standards and regulations. This knowledge is rarely the subject of recent research papers. Techniques de l’Ingénieur is the French-language database built for this use, with practical sheets and updated articles.

R&D teams and research engineers

An R&D team combines two families of sources. HAL and theses.fr help spot French public research and active laboratories. An applied database helps turn a result into an industrial solution. These references also feed R&D work traceability, which is useful for a French research tax credit file.

Students, PhD candidates and lecturers

HAL, theses.fr, Persée and OpenEdition are free and cover most bibliographic research needs. Subscriptions to Cairn.info and Techniques de l’Ingénieur usually come through the institution’s university library.

How to organise access to French-language scientific databases

1. Start from the discipline: the comparison table shows that no database covers both engineering and the humanities.
2. Search free sources first: HAL, theses.fr, Numdam and Persée require no account.
3. Check existing access: university library, company subscription, BnF Research Pass.
4. Choose a subscription by use: an applied database for production and design offices, a journal database for research.
5. Build these sources into your watch, following the method to structure a technical watch for an engineering team.

Mistakes to avoid

1. Looking for a single database. The French-language offer is split by discipline.
2. Confusing a search engine with a database. Google Scholar and Isidore are high-performing search engines that give access to many sources; validation is up to the editorial platforms they list.
3. Treating a preprint as a published article. On HAL, the deposit status is clearly indicated for each document.
4. Ignoring applied databases. For an engineer, a documented and up-to-date method is often worth more than a recent research result.

Frequently asked questions