What is OpenScholar?
OpenScholar is an open-source platform for academics and researchers to share their work, connect with others, and build an online presence. Developed by the Public Knowledge Project, OpenScholar aims to be an ethical, community-driven alternative to commercial academic social networks like Academia.edu or ResearchGate.
Some key features of OpenScholar include:
- Researcher profiles - Create a profile to showcase your publications, research interests, courses taught, awards, and more.
- Document sharing - Upload and share full-text publications like journal articles, conference papers, theses, or book chapters.
- Groups and forums - Create or join interest-based academic groups to connect with researchers in your field.
- Analytics - Track views, downloads, and impact for your shared publications.
- Customizable - As open-source software, OpenScholar can be customized and extended to fit an institution's specific needs.
Compared to commercial platforms, OpenScholar focuses more on facilitating collaboration and knowledge sharing as opposed to analytics and social metrics. It gives academics full ownership and control over their data and profiles. Its open-source license also makes it freely adaptable without proprietary restrictions.
Overall, OpenScholar aims to be a more ethical, cooperative, and researcher-centric academic sharing and networking platform compared to closed, profit-driven alternatives.
CKEditor, WebsiteBaker, WYMeditor, CLEditor, EasySocial, SCEditor, Aloha Editor, Adobe Contribute, BuddyPress, ContentTools Editor, N1ED, MarkMyWords, SnapEditor, WBCE, elRTE are some alternatives to OpenScholar.