AutiHub: Why This Hub?

AutiHub emerged from the convergence of two interests that have played an important role in Cédric Detienne’s work for several years: the participation of autistic people in matters that directly concern them, and the development of databases that make it possible to document, connect and explore dispersed information.

At first glance, these two interests may appear quite different. Yet they converge around the same question: how can information be made visible, organized and accessible in ways that help us better examine the role of autistic people in the production and circulation of knowledge about autism?

Development of AutiHub began in July 2026, with the goal of having an initial operational version ready for the first projects in September 2026. The Hub was designed as an evolving workspace: a place where data, tools, verification interfaces and opportunities for contribution can gradually be brought together.

Projects that needed a shared space

Over the past few years, several particularly intensive areas of interest have led to the creation of data collections, bibliographies, author lists, analyses and tools.

Some focused directly on the participation of autistic researchers, authors and communities in research: who produces knowledge about autism? To what extent do autistic people participate in research that concerns them? How is this participation described in scientific publications?

Others were more closely concerned with the circulation of knowledge: which studies are cited in public spaces devoted to autism? Can we accurately identify the publications that a person or organization is referring to? Can large collections of publications, bibliographic references or public posts be analysed without losing their context?

Another area of interest concerned the structure of the data itself: how can databases be built that connect people, publications, citations, projects and their sources?

These different projects existed, or could have been developed, separately. What they lacked was a shared space where they could be documented, shared, connected with one another and, above all, opened up to contributions from others.

This collaborative dimension is central. Developing databases alone can easily become a very isolated activity. Making these projects available online instead allows them to become shared resources: people can consult them, report errors, suggest data, take part in verification, or contribute directly to some of the projects.

AutiHub also emerged from this desire to transform a range of individual interests into opportunities for collaboration.

Autidacts, a first step

The Autidacts.org website was a first experiment.

Among other things, it provided a place to bring together resources on autism and gradually became the home of a much more structured project focused on scientific publications authored or co-authored by autistic people.

This experience proved valuable. It showed that public resources could be developed gradually, enriched over time and opened to contributions.

It also revealed the limitations of the structure being used. The site had not originally been designed as a platform bringing together multiple databases and independent research or documentation projects. As a result, adding new tools, establishing complex relationships between data, or developing specialised interfaces became increasingly difficult.

Autidacts could have continued to evolve, but it became increasingly clear that a new architecture, designed from the outset for this type of work, would be preferable.

Starting from scratch

The possibility of developing a new website with Django, combined with the use of an advanced coding assistant such as Codex, changed what was technically feasible.

Rather than gradually adapting an existing structure, the Hub’s lead developer chose to build a new application from the ground up, with an organization centered primarily on data.

AutiHub is therefore not conceived simply as a collection of pages to browse. Behind the visible pages lies a network of interconnected entities: people, scientific publications, bibliographic references, sources, corpora, projects and different types of analysis.

This structure allows projects to evolve without being confined to isolated pages. The same reference, person or source can be used across multiple contexts while retaining its traceability.

A Hub rather than a single-purpose website

The name AutiHub reflects this orientation. The aim is not only to publish content about autism, but to create a space where multiple projects can coexist, interact and share a common infrastructure.

Some projects focus on scientific publications involving autistic authors. Others focus on documentation, scientific citation analysis, publication corpora, public posts related to autism research, or the ways in which the participation of autistic people is described in scientific work.

The Hub is designed to connect these projects without merging them into a single entity. Each project retains its own aims, methods and limitations while benefiting from shared tools, including bibliography management, author pages, verification systems, translations, source tracking, administrative interfaces and contribution workflows.

An evolving tool

AutiHub is still under development. The first months are being used to stabilize the structure, improve data imports, clarify public pages, strengthen verification mechanisms and prepare the gradual opening of the first projects.

Development is proceeding step by step. Some pages are already available, while others will be expanded or reorganized. Errors may still be present in the data, and correcting them is considered part of the expected operation of the site.

The aim is to build a tool that is rigorous enough to be useful while remaining open to correction, discussion and improvement over time.

AutiHub is therefore at once a website, a database, a collection of tools and a collaborative space that is still being built.