HAL (short for Hyper Articles en Ligne)[2] is an open archive where authors can deposit scholarly documents from all academic fields.

[3] An uploaded document does not need to have been published or even to be intended for publication.

HAL was started in 2001 by Franck Laloë, initially at École normale supérieure (ENS), and was later transferred to the Centre pour la communication scientifique directe (CCSD); other French institutions, such as Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation (Inria), have joined the system.

While it is primarily directed towards French academics, participation is not restricted to them.

You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.See tips for writing articles about academic journals.