The Éditions’ specific publishing activities are divided among the following:
- The publication of some thirty works in French language per year (including two or three translations in the framework of a Franco-German translation program);
- The publication of nine journals: Awal, Langage et société, Quaderni, Techniques et culture, Terrain, Transcontinentales et Trivium, Les nouvelles de l'archéologie and The Arkeotek Journal;
- The publication of works in collaboration (support or co-authoring) with French institutions. This is the case, for example, of the following collections: Documents d’Archéologie Française (5 volumes per year) and Ethnologie de la France (2 volumes per year), which are co-edited with the Ministry of Culture and Communication; Chemins de l’Ethnologie (3 volumes per year), co-edited with CNRS Éditions; La Carte Archéologique de la Gaule (4 to 5 volumes per year), co-edited with the Institut de France and the Ministries of Culture, National Education, and Research; Natures Sociales (2 volumes per year), co-edited with Éditions Quae.
- According to its co-editing policy, the Éditions de la MSH limits collaborations to projects that imply genuine inter-institutional cooperation: results of the same research, complementary know-hows and networks for diffusion. It also offers limited financial support to works published by other publishing houses. As the MSH is not a financing institution, its financial support is only granted in exceptional cases and only when the publication is based on results of joint research.
- Lastly, the Éditions de la MSH also assumes responsibility for diffusing scientific works published entirely or partially in French language by certain foreign publishing houses. This is the case of certain publications of the University of Bangkok (associated with the CNRS), publications of archive documents edited in Russia, a journal edited by the Maison de l’Homme et de la Société in Bulgaria (Divinatio), as well as the journal Albertiana edited by an Italian research center, the Société Internationale Leon Battista Alberti.
In the area of human and social sciences publications, the Éditions de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme also incorporates, alongside the university presses, an important element from the private publishing sector. Far from competing with this sector, it systematically orientates projects likely to be of interest to broader readerships to this sector while reserving works intended for the scientific community for itself: the latter type of works requires an editorial role that cannot be provided by commercial networks. As part of its goal to ensure quality publications by attentive and rigorous preparation procedures, the Éditions have opted to diversify their fabrication, diffusion, and distribution techniques to keep abreast of the evolving market of scientific publications.
It is through this image of diversity that we would like to invite visitors to browse our catalogues. Such an image of diversity accurately depicts our activities and our Publishing house, a veritable crossroads of knowledge and man.
