That is so darn insightful! So check it out, if there were a way to pay $20/mo for access to ~5 publications/mo from a list of hundreds/thousands, that would be fantastic! Netflix for research. I'd pay for it.
It wouldn't be terribly challenging to build. The tricks are in making the deals with the content owners, and getting the word out to users.
The trick is that you're making a deal with Elsevier who is either going to kill you or buy you, making this a non-starter for most VCs.
It's tremendously difficult to make money in a space this entrenched. If you go a layer down and try to cut out Elsevier (go to researchers directly) you're asking scientists to basically ignore career-defining opportunities in high-impact publications... so that you can make money and a small market of hobbyists or professionals without a research budget can subscribe to journals. Also, the amount of work that needs to be done around peer-review is obscene and Elsevier (and others) have built a ridiculous moat around related volunteer work that is hugely inefficient but constantly socially reinforced (reviewing can be a status symbol). At that point, the alternative is open access and free for everybody: why not publish there?
I'd be of the opinion that the only way to reasonably attack this space is to build an adjacent content management and distribution platform not focused on journals and edge your way in, like, say, classroom management or MOOCs.
Which, well, there's Top Hat [1] who raised at a $185M valuation last year [2]. Not sure if they care about journals all that much yet though, not a whole lot of insight into their business beyond the pop business news.
Wow, you have a lot of knowledge in this area. Thanks! I wonder if because Elsevier is likely a bigger company it could be a good business to create by partnering with them, then let them buy it. So they don't have to take on the risk of developing it in house, but can still reap the rewards.
With continued pressure from SciHub, I'm thinking this might not be a bad bet to make. Elsevier et al. might just be willing to jump on the occasion, in order to save some of their business.
That said, I still think it's time to double-down on supporting SciHub. Both scientists and the interested public like it.
It wouldn't be terribly challenging to build. The tricks are in making the deals with the content owners, and getting the word out to users.
The total market is 137 Billion/year ( https://www.ibisworld.com/industry-trends/market-research-re... ) Not bad.
Looks like half the market is the government. Might be enough there to build a business on. Hard to say. Requires more research.