Clearing the Garden — ScholarlyHub

"In eco-biology, an “invasive plant species” is one that takes over a natural habitat and competes with native species for food, air, water, and other resources. The invasive species grows exponentially such that native species are no longer able to survive. At some point, native plants die out, leaving the invasive species to thrive in a monopoly over its new habitat. Scholarly communications is one such habitat in which we as researchers have allowed an invasive species—the private, for-profit academic publishing industry—to take over the resources we need and use to create and disseminate knowledge. With a revenue stream of $10 billion (and growing), private, for-profit academic publishing is threatening to choke out all other, smaller forms of knowledge creation and dissemination, leaving companies like Elsevier, Springer, Sage and Wiley, as the sole plants in the scholarly communication garden. At ScholarlyHub, we’re determined not to see that happen and are working to clear the garden, a little space at a time, to allow for research to continue to grow and thrive in its natural environment: the world of non-profit, researcher-owned and operated scholarly communication."