'Open science' finds disruptive home in Academia.edu - San Francisco Business Times

"Nearly 2.8 million papers have been posted on Academia.edu. That makes the site one of the largest open-access publishers, reportedly outpacing scientific-social networking competitors like ResearchGate and Mendeley, which was bought in April 2013 by academic publishing heavyweight Elsevier.

Call Academia the Uber of academic research. And just as taxi companies are leading a backlash against a transportation service that consumers seem to love, [Richard] Price said, Academia.edu is facing down an entrenched monopoly when it comes to scientific journals. Elsevier last year, according to some reports, sent Academia.edu some 2,800 notices to remove research papers that violated terms."