• Debating Academia.edu's Place in the Scholarly Communication Ecology

    Author(s):
    Timothy W. Elfenbein (see profile)
    Date:
    2016
    Group(s):
    Library & Information Science, Scholarly Communication
    Subject(s):
    Open access publishing, Social media, Social networks
    Item Type:
    Presentation
    Meeting Title:
    4S / EASST Conference
    Meeting Org.:
    Society for the Social Studies of Science / European Association for Science and Technology Studies
    Meeting Loc.:
    Barcelona, Spain
    Meeting Date:
    August 31 to September 3, 2016
    Tag(s):
    academia.edu, Open access, Scholarly communication
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/cmjh-zt18
    Abstract:
    As start-up companies reimagine components of the scholarly communication system, are observers too quick to assimilate the new into the known? This presentation discusses the case of the social-network and document-sharing platform Academia.edu and the debates it has stirred. Academia.edu has been subsumed into discussions about scholarly communication through two analogical extensions. First, many librarians see the platform as a digital-document repository for grey literature, akin to subject and institutional repositories that are core infrastructure for green open-access. This perspective leads to evaluations of whether Academia.edu fulfills the functions of a repository. Second, radical open-access advocates see Academia.edu as a data-mining information intermediary, akin to social-media or search-engine companies. This approach folds Academia.edu into critiques of neoliberalism and the commoditization of science. Even as these analogical extensions provide the critical purchase of established analytical frameworks, they hinder the recognition of the new forms and affordances that the Academia.edu platform introduces into scholarly communication.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    3 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved

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