Éditions Quæ

Éditions Quæ is a French scientific and technical publishing house created on 1 July 2006, when INRAE, Ifremer and Cirad pooled their editorial activities into a single publishing entity structured as a groupement d'intérêt économique (GIE). Its catalogue covers the life sciences, earth sciences and the humanities and social sciences, with a strong emphasis on agriculture, food, environment, biodiversity, marine sciences and the societal debates that surround them. The publisher releases close to 50 new titles a year and sells them in print and digital formats (PDF and ePub), in French and in English. Quæ is based at the INRAE Versailles centre on the route de Saint-Cyr in Versailles, with a second site in Montpellier; its team of around twenty people handles the whole editorial chain from manuscript assessment to promotion. According to the 2012 report of the French public publishing mediator, Quæ was the leading French public publisher by turnover in the scientific and technical sector. The house is a member of the Syndicat national de l'édition and adheres to France Livre (formerly BIEF). Its commercial front is the Librairie Quae online bookshop, which presents new releases, bestsellers, pre-orders and promotions across subjects such as political and social science, history and sociology, agriculture, environment and marine science. Typical titles include works on hedgerow multifunctionality, marine viruses, tropical shrimp farming, digital agriculture, soil-quality indicators, food loss and waste, and the history of cereals and dried pulses. Quæ also publishes the journal Ressources, the review of INRAE. Quæ participates in the open-science movement by making part of its digital catalogue available in open access, with a dedicated open-access site online since 2019. Since 2023 it has produced accessible ePubs for readers with disabilities, in line with French decree no. 2023-778, and it uses an XML-TEI structured publishing chain. In France, print distribution is handled by Géodif and Sodis.

Éditions Quæ was created on 1 July 2006, when three French public research organisations — INRAE, Ifremer and Cirad — decided to merge their editorial activities into a single publishing house. The new entity was set up as a groupement d'intérêt économique (GIE), a French legal form allowing the partners to share resources while retaining their institutional identities. The name Quæ, a Latin form evoking inquiry and questioning, signals the publisher's scientific vocation. From its base at the INRAE Versailles centre on the route de Saint-Cyr, with a second team in Montpellier, Quæ built a catalogue spanning the life sciences, earth sciences and humanities and social sciences. It publishes close to 50 new titles a year, in French and English, in print and digital formats (PDF and ePub). Its output reflects the research priorities of its parent organisations: agriculture and food systems, environment and biodiversity, marine and aquatic sciences, and the social and historical dimensions of these fields. By 2012, according to the report of the French public publishing mediator, Quæ had become the leading French public publisher by turnover in the scientific and technical sector. The house is a member of the Syndicat national de l'édition and adheres to France Livre (formerly BIEF). For print, its French diffuser is Géodif and its distributor is Sodis. In the 2010s and 2020s Quæ embraced open science, making part of its digital catalogue available in open access; a dedicated open-access site has been online since 2019. The publisher also modernised its production chain around XML-TEI and, from 2023, began producing accessible ePubs for readers with disabilities in accordance with French decree no. 2023-778. Its online Librairie Quae serves as the commercial showcase for new releases, bestsellers, pre-orders and promotions, and it publishes Ressources, the review of INRAE.

• 2023

  Quæ begins producing accessible ePubs for readers with disabilities, in line with decree no. 2023-778.

• 2019

  A dedicated open-access site for part of the digital catalogue goes online.

• 2012

  According to the report of the French public publishing mediator, Quæ is the leading French public publisher by turnover in the scientific and technical sector.

• 2006

  INRAE, Ifremer and Cirad merge their editorial activities into Éditions Quæ, a groupement d'intérêt économique, on 1 July.

Public-sector scientific and technical publisher at the crossroads of science and societal debate, combining print and digital publishing with open-access and accessibility commitments.

• The multifunctionality of hedgerows: Environmental, agricultural, legal, and methodological issues

• Ressources #10, La revue d'INRAE

• Marine viruses: Simple parasites or major players in aquatic ecosystems?

• Smelling to survive: The Amazing World of Our Sense of Smell

• What role do trees play in the city? Between benefits and constraints

• Researchers on mission: 10 investigative stories to unravel earthquakes, pollutions, epidemics, and more…

• Indicators for preserving soil quality

• Sciences de gestion et agri-environnement: Vers une ingénierie organisationnelle des dynamiques collectives

• Tropical Shrimp Farming: Toward Greater Sustainability

• Understanding Digital Agriculture: Ten years of interdisciplinary research at the #DigitAg Institute

• Cheese: A World of history and tradition

• Food loss and waste: Les défis à relever

• Gender in research: Evaluation and knowledge production

• The ecology of life zones: From Merriam to Holdridge

• Chlordecone in the French West Indies: A One Health approach under construction

• Board games for agriculture and landscape: Thinking, designing, facilitating, evaluating, sharing

• An agricultural history of cities: Immersive explorations from the 15th to the 20th century

• Reinventing urban nature: Scientific perspectives and stakeholder initiatives

• Cereals and dried pulses: From the big history to small stories

• Maîtres des océans

• A guide to sugarcane diseases (New Edition)

• In the Skin of France's snakes (3rd edition)

• Blue: When Nature creates the exception

• Hydrogène et transition énergétique: Perspectives globales et dimensions régionales

1. 1Librairie Quae : des livres au coeur des sciencesquae.com
2. 2Political & Social Science / History and sociology | Librairie Quaequae.com
3. 3Cereals and dried pulses. From the big history to small stories - Eric Birlouez (EAN13 : 9782759234776) | Librairie Quaequae.com
4. 4All works | Librairie Quaequae.com
5. 5Éditions Quæ — Wikidatawikidata.org
6. 6Éditions Quæ — Wikipédiafr.wikipedia.org