Frequently asked questions

How to credit Camille Noûs?

The process is simple: Include “Camille Noûs” as a co-author of your publications. This decision, which depends entirely on the free-will of authors, implies that they are all kept informed about the symbolic nature of Camille Noûs and agree with its principle. For the sake of transparency, we encourage you to explicitly state this choice in the cover letter, or as a footnote that may be inspired from the following: “Camille Noûs embodies the collegial nature of our work, as a reminder that science proceeds from disputatio and that the building and dissemination of knowledge are intrinsically selfless, collaborative and open.”

Camille Noûs, as a personification of the academic community, has contributed to the development of the methodological framework and to establishing the state-of-the-art, and ensures post-publication follow-up, all of which are actually part of the collegial construction of the standards of Science, and may be credited as such.

Can Camille Noûs sign any publication?

Whilst Camille Noûs embodies the scientific community, this symbolic figure of research does not substitute to it. Thus, C. Noûs will not sign research articles, contributions or books as a single author, and should not be mistaken with publishing under a pseudonym. Nor can C. Noûs’ name be added in retrospect to publications that predate 2020, when Camille was not born.

Exceptionally, upon invitation by a journal editorial board and under the strict condition of an explicit statement, knowingly agreed upon by all parties, collectives of authors may sign opinion articles or special issues dedicated to science policy or to the elaboration, probation, publication and integrity of research works as Camille Noûs.

Camille Noûs will soon acquire an international stature. Beyond research publications, C. Noûs participates in many other collegial activities of our professions: calls for papers, co-organisation of conferences, editorial committees, etc.

What is Camille Noûs’ contact information?

Camille Noûs (C. Noûs, or if necessary without accent C. Nous)’ e-mail address is camille.nous@cogitamus.fr. C. Noûs is affiliated to the Cogitamus laboratory (homepage: https://www.cogitamus.fr/), and/or to the main affiliation of the article’s co-authors. If required, Camille Noûs’ physical address can be that of your institution, pending permanent institutional accommodation.

Camille Noûs holds a HAL account under the following IdHal : cnous. Your publications can be deposited in HAL under your own author’s name. By indicating co-authorship, Camille Noûs’ CV in HAL will be automatically credited.

Does Camille Noûs have any conflicting interest?

Living up to the tradition of critical rationalism, Camille Noûs is claiming the independence of research from all powers (religious, political, and economical). Accordingly, Camille Noûs declares no competing interests.

How does Camille Noûs’ statement of the collective nature of research promote scientific integrity?

Camille Noûs, as a personification of the research community, is de facto involved in the genesis of our publications, which are always the fruits of confrontation with the work of others, of disputatio. At a time when the management and bibliometric assessment of research leaves room only for the individual, Camille Noûs embodies the grounding role of the collective in the creation of scientific knowledge, proceeding from a collegial organisation, from the legacy and criticism of previous work, and from peer-review. To deny it would be a matter of fiction or even falsification. Camille Noûs’ existence therefore goes beyond the scale of the individuals involved in this initiative.

Inviting C. Noûs to co-author an article allows us to acknowledge the reality of the collective work achieved by the research community. The importance of the co-signed publications will emphasize this message.

From an empirical point of view, the actual existence of Camille Noûs is also supported by the numerous precedents of consortia of authors or collective signatures in experimental sciences, mathematics and human and social sciences.

In the event of a breach of research ethics and scientific integrity of a co-authored article, Camille Noûs would withdraw from the list of authors.

Can you declare your affiliation to the Cogitamus laboratory?

Any of Camille Noûs’ co-authors is welcome to state a double affiliation to the Cogitamus laboratory. Affiliation as “associate member” to a laboratory is already commonplace, although it has so far no legal value.

For the sake of publishing transparency, can Camille Noûs’ composite identity be disclosed?

All of Camille Noûs’ co-authors on a given article are, by nature, members of the collective entity “Camille Noûs”, whose existence they legitimate thereby. Providing an extensive list of group members would not only be pointless; it would stand against the idea that the collegial practice of research cannot be reduced to a sum of individual contributions.

In agreement with the concept “Credit where credit is due”^[1,2], Camille Noûs’ co-authors on a given study are deontologically not in position to claim, as members of a consortium might, personal contribution to other works co-signed by Camille Noûs.

Doesn’t the French first name Camille and the circumflex accent in Noûs make the collectif inaccessible to non-French speakers?

Accessibility to colleagues from other countries affected by, or working in, the same dispossession enterprise is an important parameter to consider. Science is always an international practice. For this reason, it was a priority for us that the Cogitamus site hosting this project should be multilingual.

The first name Camille that was chosen by the majority of voters is undoubtedly French, but this does not call into question the international openness of the initiative. In many disciplines and journals, the first name is not indicated and is replaced by an initial (C.). Accents and other diacritical signs are often neutralized by journals and databases. The diversity of languages and cultures appears less obviously then, but it also means that the circumflex should not pose a major problem.

Membership to Cogitamus lab is also wide open to anyone in academia all over the world.

Who manages C. Noûs’ e-mail account?

The RogueESR collective has launched this action in March 2020 following an inquiry answered by thousands of professionals in academia. Our aim is plainly that any member of the academic community can express their desire to see research as a place for the production and advancement of human knowledge, and to become once again an autonomous and responsible space, at the sole service of common good.

RogueESR administrates technically the e-mails addressed to camille.nous@cogitamus.fr on behalf on Camille Noûs — who is seldom available on-site — and of co-authors — who (i) approved of this delegation and (ii) knowingly included this incarnation of collective research as a co-author.

Camille’s secretaries declare on honour (theirs, as well as Camille’s) that they take no part in the peer reviewing of articles where they might happen to be co-authors or encounter any competing interest. Should any violation to this rule occur, Camille Noûs would withdraw from the list of authors and launch an investigation that could lead to suing and/or retraction.

May I post videos online and affiliate them to the Cogitamus laboratory?

One of the activities of Cogitamus could be through videos posted on a dedicated channel, that would offer online courses in a “haute couture” format compared to the standards of the format. Feel free to contact us about this, or to submit other ideas, to propose a research axis or a team.