Save the world with innovation? Open scholarship is the key!

Throughout history, changes in how research is conducted and shared have resulted in significant increases in innovation that have benefited society. How we communicate research and scholarship has been functionally unchanged since the mid-1600s when scientific societies were first formed, and the scholarly journal was born. With the advent of electronic publishing, open scholarship, and formal research artifact sharing, we are just at the start of a scholarly communication evolution that could drive solutions to our most pressing global challenges, including climate change, new diseases, and uneven societal opportunity. But this impact is not a given. With history as our guide, we will consider the necessary characteristics that the next scholarly communication evolution must possess to facilitate explosive innovation to save the world. And, we will explore the role of open infrastructure as a foundation for this scholarship transformation.