14.08.2019

Open Source for Scholarly Publishing: An Inventory and Analysis

« The marketplace for digital tools and platforms in support of scholarly research and communication is highly dynamic, and while we can see substantial evidence of expansive start-up activity, the trendline is perhaps even more so towards steady consolidation. The Kitchen has tracked this marketplace closely, including efforts at disruptive innovation in the citation database segment, the rise of the tools now known as access brokers, and the acquisition of major institutional repository providers and manuscript submission and management systems. As much innovation as is taking place, and as gripping as these stories are, I continue to have a lingering concern about lock-in. As Angela Cochran wrote vividly, “these platforms and systems require the jaws of life to extricate yourself.”