Hi Matt and AoIR,
As part of the free, open, Academic Journals''ecosystem,' here's startup, C.C. World University and School's Academic Journal's wiki, Subject page - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Academic_Journals_at_WUaS#World_University_and_School_Links . World University and School (which is like Wikipedia with MIT OCW and planning online, C.C. MIT-centric, university degrees in many languages) is also planning to develop academic journals in large languages to begin. For example, at present anyone can go to any subject on the main, WUAS, wiki, Subjects page - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Subjects - in English only (at this time), and find Academia.edu near the top, and potentially add the article they've written to that subject.
Here's an example of a Subject page ... 'Open_Access_Resources' at WUaS - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Open_Access_Resources - and as a C.C. wiki, anyone can start a Subject page in an area they're interested in, using this SUBJECT TEMPLATE - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/SUBJECT_TEMPLATE - or similar, which currently includes Academia.edu, since it's free and open, and makes it possible for academics to self-publish.
Have AoIR-ers seen Harvard computer science Professor Stuart Shieber's recent blog entry " Thoughts on founding open-access journals," which I've added to this WUaS Open Access Resources' subject using a version of the AAA citation approach:
Shieber, Stuart. 2013. [http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/pamphlet/2013/11/21/thoughts-on-founding-open-access-journals/ Thoughts on founding open-access journals]. November 21. Brookline, MA: blogs.law.harvard.edu/pamphlet/2013/11/21/thoughts-on-founding-open-access-journals/.
Stuart Shieber is one of the leading, tenured academic voices for open access journals, and writing very sensibly.
As startup World University and School develops and begins to accredit for university degrees, WUaS's approaches to online journals will move beyond Academia.edu's approach, particularly with respect to the editorial Board per Stuart Shieber's article.
(A huge project, wiki WUaS seeks to become the MIT / Harvard of the internet and in all 7,105 languages and 242 countries, and Wikipedia, by way of comparison, is in 287 languages and just developed and deployed a CC database, Wikidata. And WUaS plans to become a significant employer eventually, first hiring graduate students from greatest universities, if possible, as journal editors, and instructors in G+ Hangouts for example, to MIT faculty in MIT OCW in video).
I think Elsevier and Academia.edu will continue to pursue their publishing strategies, but make questions of Copyright and Creative Commons' licensing (http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Creative_Commons_Law#World_University_and_School_Links) more significant.
Best,
Scott
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