Our agency is remastering the Drupal HAL Publications module, originally developed for Aix-Marseille University, to turn it into an open-source, flexible tool ready to showcase the scientific publications of any institution or laboratory. A key solution to automate the display of your research on your Drupal website.
What is HAL (Hyper Articles Online)?
HAL is the open archive platform managed by the CCSD (Center for Direct Scientific Communication). It allows researchers, laboratories, universities, and institutions to:
- deposit their scientific publications,
- ensure their long-term accessibility,
- share research work in open access,
- increase their national and international visibility.
HAL is now the French benchmark for open archives and serves as a strategic tool for the scientific communication of both public and private institutions.
Why a Drupal module for HAL?
Drupal is widely used in higher education and research: universities, schools, research centers, laboratories, scientific consortiums... Many of these organizations share the same need: automatically display publications deposited on HAL on their institutional website. It is to meet this need that we developed, and recently revamped, the Drupal module HAL Publications.
HAL Publications: a complete overhaul for widespread use
At bluedrop.fr, we have always been committed to open source. We develop and maintain several contributed modules, and we are actively involved in the Drupal ecosystem (DrupalCon, DrupalCamp, regular contributions, etc.).
The HAL Publications module was created several years ago to meet the specific needs of Aix-Marseille University, one of our long-standing clients. After several iterations, it became essential to make this module cleaner, more modern, and above all more generic, so that it could be used by any institution wishing to showcase scientific publications.
Objectives of the redesign:
- Completely generalize the module (no more AMU-specific use cases).
- Modernize the architecture and API calls (HAL API v3).
- Ensure compatibility with current Drupal standards.
- Simplify installation and configuration.
- Optimize performance, caching, and entity management.
- Provide clear documentation for Drupal administrators and developers.
Key features of the remastered module
Direct connection to the HAL API
The module allows you to create multiple configurable HAL queries:
- by author,
- by laboratory,
- by research unit,
- by structure or by field.
Automatic generation of publication lists
Publications deposited in HAL automatically appear on your Drupal site:
- dynamic lists,
- bibliographies,
- author pages,
- thematic highlights.
Full integration with Views
Thanks to the Drupal Views integration, you can create:
- advanced filters (year, field, journal…),
- custom blocks,
- search pages,
- displays adapted to your visual identity.
Who can use HAL Publications?
This module is intended for any organization wishing to promote research:
- universities,
- engineering schools,
- laboratories,
- research institutes,
- scientific foundations,
- cultural or heritage institutions,
- innovative companies.
Do you want to integrate HAL into your Drupal site?
As an open-source Drupal web agency, we make it a point to:
- share our developments with the community,
- maintain long-lasting modules,
- participate in Drupal community events,
- support French institutions in promoting their research.
The HAL Publications module aligns perfectly with this approach: a useful, open, well-documented tool designed to last.
Contact our Drupal team to discuss your project or arrange a demonstration. We would be delighted to help you share and promote your scientific work.
