Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques (CTHS)

What Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques (CTHS) does

Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques (CTHS) is a French scholarly association (association loi 1901) founded in 1832 and attached to the École nationale des chartes (Sorbonne/PSL University). The organization coordinates a national network of more than 3,000 learned societies (sociétés savantes) across France and French-speaking regions, operating from the Campus Condorcet in Aubervilliers with a staff of approximately six employees.

CTHS's core products fall into three functional lines. First, an academic publishing division (Éditions du CTHS) that produces monographs, conference proceedings, and edited volumes across named collections including CTHS Format (small-format paperbacks), L'Art et l'Essai (art-history essays), and Actes des congrès (digital congress proceedings). Second, an annual national congress (the 151st edition scheduled for Lyon, 10-14 May 2027) that convenes historians and scientific researchers, with proceedings published subsequently. Third, two digital research assets: La France savante, a prosopographic database of notable French historical figures, and Dicotopo, an online topographical dictionary of French place names.

Revenue derives from individual publication sales (e.g., €36.00 per volume), congress registration fees, and the Fondation du CTHS thesis prize program. The go-to-market is primarily event-driven: CTHS reaches its audience of academic researchers, graduate students, and member societies through its website, the rotating annual congress, and presence at events such as the Rendez-vous de l'Histoire à Blois and the Festival international de géographie. No venture funding, M&A activity, or paid advertising channel is indicated; the model is institutional and membership-supported rather than commercial.

Name

Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques (CTHS)

Legal name

Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques (CTHS)

Website

https://cths.fr

Company type

Private

Founded year

1832

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

CTHS is a French non-profit scholarly association, founded 1832 and attached to the École nationale des chartes, that coordinates over 3,000 learned societies through academic publishing, an annual national congress, and historical prosopographic and topographical databases for historians and researchers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Academic Publishing and Scholarly Research Services

NAICS

Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers (5131), Web Search Portals, Libraries, Archives, and Other Information Services (519)

SIC

Services-Membership Organizations (8600), Books: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2731)

akta.pro primary industry

Scholarly Societies & Conference Proceedings Publishing (MPAJABAK)

akta.pro secondary industry

Scholarly Society & Association Publishing (EDAGAFAK)

Keywords

• Academic historical publishing
• Learned society coordination
• Scholarly research publications
• Historical society congresses
• Prosopographic database research

Headquarters

HQ city

Aubervilliers

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Others

Revenue model

1. Publication sales: CTHS publishes historical and scientific works through its own publishing house, selling books and academic publications to individuals and institutions.
2. Congress fees: Annual congresses generate revenue through registration fees from participants attending the national congress of historical and scientific societies.
3. Book sales: Individual book sales at 36.00€ per volume, such as 'Le tableau vivant de David à Jeff Wall' priced at 36.00€

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

CTHS publishes academic historical and scientific works through its Éditions du CTHS publishing division across multiple collections (CTHS Format, L'Art et l'Essai, Actes des congrès), organizes the annual national congress of historical and scientific societies, and maintains digital research databases (La France savante prosopographic database and Dicotopo topographical dictionary). The organization also coordinates a national network of learned societies and administers thesis prizes through the Fondation du CTHS.

Product overview

CTHS operates as a unified academic publishing and scholarly coordination organization, consisting of several interconnected products and services. The core offerings include the Éditions du CTHS publishing division with multiple collections (CTHS Format for small-format monographs, L'Art et l'Essai for art history essays, and Actes des congrès for conference proceedings). The organization coordinates the annual Congress (Congrès annuel) bringing together hundreds of scholarly societies, and maintains La France savante, a prosopographic database of French historical figures. Additional services include the online topographical dictionary (Dictionnaire topographique/Dicotopo), an annuary of member societies, and the Fondation du CTHS offering thesis prizes and research awards. The product portfolio centers on scholarly historical research publication, academic society coordination, and digital resources for French historical research.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Éditions du CTHS (CTHS Publications)

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature2 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• École nationale des chartescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCTHS is formally attached to the École nationale des chartes (part of the Sorbonne/PSL University), which provides institutional affiliation and academic credibility. The two institutions share campus facilities at Campus Condorcet and collaborate on academic initiatives.
• Association des amis du CTHS et des sociétés savantesminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerFriends association that supports CTHS and member learned societies, organizing events and providing supplementary support to the organization's mission.
• Association bourguignonne des sociétés savantesminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorRegional association of learned societies in Burgundy that collaborates with CTHS on events such as the 35th colloquium on 'Enfance et éducation en Bourgogne' (October 2026).

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Brill Publishers: International scholarly publisher with strong humanities and historical sciences programs. Comparable to CTHS in advancing humanities scholarship through monograph publishing, particularly in European history.
• Cambridge University Press: Major global academic publisher with extensive humanities monograph and journal programs. Comparable to CTHS in publishing peer-reviewed scholarly historical works, though at vastly greater scale and international reach.
• Oxford University Press: One of the largest academic publishers globally, with strong humanities and history lists. Comparable to CTHS in scholarly publishing for historical research but with international distribution and English-language dominance.
• École française de Rome: French academic institution under the Ministry of Higher Education that publishes scholarly works on history and archaeology. Comparable to CTHS as a French state-attached research institution producing humanities scholarship and coordinating learned society activities.

Others

• Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF): France's national library maintaining bibliographic, prosopographic, and topographical reference resources (notably data.bnf.fr). Functionally adjacent to CTHS's La France savante and Dicotopo databases and a key partner/overlap for French scholarly reference infrastructure.
• Institut Historique Allemand (Deutsches Historisches Institut Paris): German historical research institute in Paris that publishes monographs, conferences, and digital resources on French-German history. Comparable to CTHS as a foreign-research institute publishing historical scholarship and convening academic events in France.

Direct peers

• Éditions de la Maison des Sciences de l'Homme: French scholarly publishing house under the MSH network, producing monographs and reference works in humanities and social sciences. Directly comparable to Éditions du CTHS in academic monograph publishing for the French research community.
• OpenEdition: French academic publishing platform for humanities and social sciences journals, books, and conference proceedings. CTHS's conference proceedings (Actes des congrès) directly overlap with OpenEdition's open-access scholarly publishing mission and French-language audience.
• Persée: French digital platform publishing peer-reviewed academic journals and conference proceedings in humanities and social sciences. Comparable to CTHS in digitizing and disseminating French-language scholarly historical and scientific content.
• Comité français des sciences historiques: French national committee of historical sciences affiliated with the International Committee of Historical Sciences. Mirrors CTHS's coordinating role for the French historical research community and operates a comparable learned-society federation model.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCTHS
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/cths-comite

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques (CTHS)