Version of 01/23/2026
Huma-Num is a Research Infrastructure (hereinafter "IR* Huma-Num") of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research. It is supported by the Research Support Unit (UAR) 3598, whose supervisory bodies are the National Centre for Scientific Research ("CNRS"), Aix-Marseille University ("AMU"), and Campus Condorcet. IR* Huma-Num implements a digital infrastructure that enables communities in the humanities and social sciences (HSS) to develop, carry out, and preserve research programs—including their data and tools—over the long term, in a context of open science and data sharing.
IR* Huma-Num offers a set of services and tools for digital data produced in humanities and social sciences research projects, including isidore.science (hereinafter referred to as the "Service"), accessible at the following address https://isidore.science.
"Open Access" refers to free, immediate, and open online access to digital resources, including content, data, metadata, etc., without technical or commercial barriers.
"Provider" refers to IR* Huma-Num and its supervisory bodies.
"Full Text" refers to any document content (e.g., publications, database content, images, reports) disseminated in Open Access on the Internet, which the Service harvests. The Full Text may be made accessible to Service users based on the queries they submit to perform searches. The Full Text is only indexed and is not republished online by the Provider.
"Metadata" refers to information relating to the Full Text, such as title, subtitle, abstract, author, ISSN, DOI, URL, publication language, etc. Metadata is distinct from the Full Text.
"Content" refers to the content of the Service, i.e., Metadata and Full Text that have undergone automatic and semantic enrichment.
"Response Database" refers to the response index calculated by the Service's processing chains, containing Metadata, enrichments, and semantic values of non-empty words from the Full Text, extracted according to the TF-IDF algorithm.
"Computer Programs" refers to web scrapers and/or bots designed to harvest information in bulk.
"User" refers to any individual or entity accessing the Service and likely to consult and use the information and content referenced in the Service.
"Authenticated User" refers to a User who has a user account to access certain features of the Service.
"Author Pages" refers to automatic pages that aggregate digital resources indexed by the Service for a specific author.
"Profile Pages" refers to pages providing a detailed view of researchers, which can be customized by these researchers when they are Authenticated Users.
These General Terms and Conditions of Use (hereinafter the "GTCU") are intended to determine the terms and conditions of use of the Service provided by the Provider.
The GTCU are made available to Users on the Service's home portal, on the "GTCU" page, accessible at https://isidore.science/cgu, where they can be directly consulted.
Use of the Service implies acceptance of the GTCU. By using the Service, the User accepts and consents to the GTCU. The user acknowledges having read and understood all the terms and conditions and agrees to be bound by them.
If the User does not accept or refuses these GTCU, they must not use the Service.
The Provider reserves the right to modify the terms of the GTCU at any time to adapt them as necessary. Modifications will be published on the Service and will take effect upon publication. The User is responsible for regularly consulting the GTCU to be aware of any changes. The GTCU in effect at the time of the User's use of the Service will be applicable.
Certain features of the Service (such as those offered by the academic social network) require the creation of a user account so that the Authenticated User can access them.
The Provider makes the following features available to Users free of charge:
| Features | Description |
|---|---|
| Search Engine | The Service allows users to discover, find, and access digital resources such as publications, digital data, and profiles of researchers in HSS. |
| Automatic Indexing and Enrichment | The Service harvests textual metadata and Full Text available on the Internet in Open Access, enriches them, and indexes them. The Service uses document metadata and Full Text to analyze this information to enrich it, link it to concepts from scientific repositories (thesauri, etc.), and link it to author repository identifiers (notably ORCID, IDRef developed by ABES, IDHAL from the HAL open archive, VIAF, etc.). |
| Improving the Discoverability of Research Work | The Service offers features to improve the discoverability of research work, such as Author Pages and Profile Pages. |
| Academic Social Network | The Service allows an Authenticated User to create a "Personal Space for Researchers."
This individual space is intended for researchers, doctoral students, and other academic professionals.
The Personal Space for Researchers offers more features such as:
|
The user account, identifiers, and password of the Authenticated User are confidential. The Authenticated User is responsible for all activities occurring under their account and for maintaining the confidentiality of their login credentials.
The Authenticated User undertakes not to impersonate others and to keep their identifiers and password strictly confidential.
In the event of suspicious activity detected on their user account, the Authenticated User undertakes to inform the Provider as soon as possible.
Both the User and the Authenticated User undertake to:
Within the framework of Profile Pages, each Authenticated User can customize their own Profile Page, for example, by adding additional information about their career and claiming information about their research that they wish to highlight (publications, cooperation, etc.). This is the only case of publication that is possible for the User on the Service. The Authenticated User undertakes to limit their publication strictly to this purpose of customization. The Provider is not responsible for these additions and modifications, of which the Authenticated User is the publisher under Article 1-1, I of Law No. 2004-575 of June 21, 2004, as amended, on confidence in the digital economy (the "LCEN").
The Provider reserves the right to refuse or withdraw access to any User not complying with these GTCU. In the event of unfair use of the Service, particularly the intensive use of Computer Programs, measures may be taken by the Provider.
The Provider undertakes to implement all necessary means to ensure the peaceful use of the Service by Users and Authenticated Users.
To ensure this peaceful use for Users and Authenticated Users, the Service is accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, within the limits of constraints inherent in the operation of the Internet network, maintenance operations, technical incidents, or cases of force majeure under Article 1218 of the Civil Code as interpreted by the courts.
The Service is provided by the Provider as is. The Provider does not guarantee robustness, scalability, or absence of errors, nor does it make any commitment to quality of service other than those provided for in these GTCU.
The Provider reserves the right to interrupt or temporarily suspend the Service without notice to carry out maintenance or testing operations. The Provider informs Users and Authenticated Users that maintenance and/or testing may be carried out at any time, without the Provider or any of its supervisory bodies being held liable for the unavailability of the Service during this period. Where possible, the Provider will inform Users and Authenticated Users.
The Provider and/or any of its supervisory bodies cannot be held liable for direct, indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages arising from the use or inability to use the Service.
The liability of the Provider or any of its supervisory bodies cannot, in any way, be engaged with regard to the content of the information on this site or the consequences that may result from its use or interpretation.
The Provider cannot be held liable for damages resulting from the interpretation or use of the content available within the framework of the Service.
The Provider declines all responsibility in the case of abnormal use or illicit exploitation of the Service by any User.
The reproduction of a link from the Service to a site published by a third party does not in any way constitute validation of this site or its content by the Provider. The Provider cannot be held liable for the content produced on a site published by a third party to which links are established, or for any other information published on this site, as well as the consequences of their use. The establishment of hypertext links by third parties to pages or documents disseminated on the Provider's site is authorized, provided that the links do not contravene the interests of the Provider and that they guarantee the possibility for the User or Authenticated User to identify the origin and author of the document. It is specified that the establishment of such hypertext links for the purpose of commercial promotion of products or services offered by a third party is prohibited.
The Provider is considered an "intermediary service" within the meaning of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 of the European Parliament and of the Council of October 19, 2022, on a single market for digital services and amending Directive 2000/31/EC (hereinafter the "Digital Services Regulation").
Any User who considers that content is illegal may bring it to the attention of the host at the following email address contact@huma-num.fr under the conditions of Article 16, 2 of the Digital Services Regulation.
The Provider retains all intellectual property rights over the Service, including the content of the Response Database and the content of the Profile Pages.
The Service is developed and maintained by the Provider. It constitutes a database within the meaning of Article L. 341-1 of the Intellectual Property Code, on which the CNRS holds a sui generis right as the producer of the database. The Provider and the CNRS prohibit:
The User and the Authenticated User may not reproduce, modify, distribute, or exploit the Service for commercial purposes without the prior written authorization of the Provider.
The Service is a work of creation, the exclusive property of the CNRS, protected by French and international legislation on intellectual property. No reproduction or representation may be made in contravention of the rights of the CNRS arising from the aforementioned legislation.
The Service's website, https://isidore.science, is a work of creation, the exclusive property of the CNRS, protected by French and international legislation on intellectual property. No reproduction or representation may be made in contravention of the rights of the CNRS arising from the aforementioned legislation.
These GTCU are governed by French law.
In the event of difficulty in interpreting or executing these GTCU, the User and the Provider and/or one or all of its supervisory bodies will endeavor to resolve their dispute amicably.
In the event of a persistent dispute, it will be submitted to the competent courts.
Any dispute arising from these GTCU will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Paris courts.
If a provision of the GTCU is found to be illegal, invalid, or inapplicable for any reason, the provision in question will be deemed unwritten, without affecting the validity of the other provisions, which will continue to apply between the User/Authenticated User and the Provider.
In the event of divergence or contradiction between the French version of these GTCU and a version translated into another language, the provisions of the French version will prevail.
The titles of the articles of the GTCU are given for reference and convenience only. They are not and will not be taken into account in the interpretation of the GTCU.
For any questions or concerns regarding these GTCU, any User can contact the Provider by writing to the following email address: isidore@huma-num.fr.