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Changes in scientific communication in the digital era and in Open Access have broadened the spectrum of stakeholders, thereby influencing the definition and scope of dissemination models. In Health, in particular, research funding agencies, which historically did not intervene in the definition of scientific information dissemination models, have joined the Open Access equation. Today, they carry a lot of weight, as do publishers, libraries and learned societies.

Funding agencies very quickly began paying attention to the rise of Open Access. The most important among them introduced recommendations in the 2000s; these were directed at funded researchers and stipulated that published results be made available in Open Access. For example, the Wellcome Trust, one of the best endowed agencies in the world, adopted a mandate for Open Access in October 2006 [WAL 06]. Researchers receiving funding were required to provide open access to the results of their research.

The recommendations, clearly in favor of access to and visibility of funded research, are part of a management logic that finds its functional counterpart in the identification of these results in international databases, such as PubMed, Web of Science (WOS) or Scopus. Publications (mainly articles) are therefore not only “units of knowledge” but also “accounting units” [GIN 18] on which economic mechanisms of return on investment (ROI) are based.

Researchers previously invited to publish their results in “excellence” journals adapted and learned to archive their articles in thematic or institutional repositories [FRY 11]. Publishers have also adapted their Open Access policies to allow authors to deposit different versions of their papers (preprint, postprint author, postprint editor) according to specific deadlines and conditions (e.g. Sherpa Romeo).

Open Access journals (based on the Gold Author-Pays model) that appeared in the field of Health were a rapid success with authors who met all the expectations of research assessment: publication of articles in an Open Access journal, guaranteeing the visibility of research results. The authors had no difficulty justifying payment of the APCs from their research budget to the funding agencies. The latter even made it clear in their calls for projects that publication expenses (including APCs) were eligible for funding.

In Health, where research is based on a dual dynamic of collaboration and international competition, the financial stakes are huge; Open Access is therefore at the heart of the strategies of funding agencies (public and private) to give visibility and recognition to the research they have funded. This strategy has therefore been integrative of the various channels of Open Access, while at the same time driving momentum towards new avenues.