With the Académie des Sciences in 2015

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AVEC L’ACADÉMIE DES SCIENCES 2015
Information Resources Specifically Designed for the Public
In the course of 2015, the Académie des Sciences intensified its initiatives to provide direct scientific information to the general
public. Thus, the “resources40” section, placed under the editorial responsibility of the Standing Committee for Science History and
Epistemology, has benefitted from many contributions of members of the Académie.
A New Website for the Académie
On 7 July 2015, the Académie des Sciences launched a
new website41, which was totally redesigned to provide
all its audiences with an easier access to information. For
the Académie, the main challenges of web strategy were
addressing mobility, improving the visual impact of information,
and capturing the attention of website visitors.
Indeed, the new interfaces now adapt to each digital device –
computer, smartphone, tablet -, events are lavishly illustrated
and ergonomics has been revisited to provide more user-
friendly and direct access to information.
As for browsing, it is now carried out:
• from the main menu, which presents the sections
of the website, built around the five missions of the
Academy as redefined in 2012 – Encouraging the
scientific community; Promoting science teaching;
Transmitting knowledge; Fostering international
collaboration; Playing an expert and advisory role –and
the section About Us, which, in particular, introduces
all the members of the Académie des Sciences and
provides access to the main presentation documents
of the Académie available for download;
• through the search engine, which is particularly
efficient for intuitively accessing information;
• via dedicated frames on the home page: news
header, keyword cloud with direct links to the Press
Releases and Videos sections, such as, for example,
a frame dedicated to the Most recently published
articles, etc.;
• in the articles themselves: linked one to the other,
they provide for a thematic and gradual discovery of
the website.
Moreover, new functionalities are now available: information sharing from the website to social media platforms, RSS feed subscription,
online registration to conferences and colloquia, etc.
In 2015, the website of the Académie attracted 182,025 unique visitors, with 15,439,826 hits and 1,269,512 read pages.
Finally, the Académie sends out a monthly e-letter to over 14,000 subscribers, mostly scientists or institutional readers, in order to
alert or remind them of the most important news of the Académie. Registration is open to all internet users who would like to receive
it, and may be carried out from the home page of the website.
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