Publishers in the Electronic Information Environment: Recent Opportunities and Challenges: The Context of Scholarly Publications in France

The paper explores some significant changes in the field of scholar publishing, especially concerning the French context. First the important role of multimedia, its growing influence on the user behaviour and on the education field is stressed. We study particularly the added-values of the multimedia publication and shows how new technologies generate innovative ways of writing, creating, producing and reading. We emphasizes on the emergence of a new culture based upon the metaphoric characteristics of the multimedia that modifies our relation with communication and with the world. Second the paper analysis the electronic world of information that provides challenges as well as opportunities for publishers everywhere. It addresses a general outline of the internet impact on the relation between publishers, users and authors. Besides, it describes precisely the existing role and functions of French publishers in the academic and scholar levels and gives some examples of services’ publishers. Despite the offer’s variety of French scholar publishers many problems remain to deal with. Our analysis highlights the recent obstacles faced by them both nationally and internationally. Finally it discusses the needs and possible ways of fruitful research to better meet remote users’ needs especially in the francophone context. It focuses on the advantages of creating new partnerships to meet current and future challenges of scholar publishers.