About
Launched:
2016
Record Updated:
Aug 21, 2024
Informal scholarly communications
Repository service
Research profiling system
The Commons is a nonprofit network that enables scholars, researchers, practitioners, teachers, and students to create a professional profile, discuss common interests, develop new publications, and share their work. The Commons network is open to anyone, regardless of field, language, institutional affiliation, or form of employment. Full-featured accounts are and will remain free for individual users; the network is sustained by the financial contributions of participating organizations.
Mission
We cultivate open spaces for diverse communities to connect, create, share, and experiment. Together we work to transform global knowledge systems.
Key Achievements
In May 2024, Humanities Commons changed its name to Knowledge Commons.
In November 2020, the fiscal sponsorship and hosting of Knowledge Commons (then called Humanities Commons) moved to Michigan State University, where the network is developed and maintained by members of the MESH Research team. Additionally, MSU became the first institutional member to join the network in 2020, launching MSU Commons to serve its campus community.
In early 2023, the Commons welcomed HASTAC, often described as "the world's first and oldest academic social network," as a participating organization, importing 18,000 existing user accounts and 10 years of data to hastac.hcommons.org.
Also in early 2023, the Commons began a multi-year NSF-funded collaboration with a group of science education researchers at MSU, which will lead to the launch of STEM Ed+ Commons. This FAIR/CARE open science research coordination network will bring together education researchers from across STEM fields and around the world to share data, collaborate on research projects, and develop common protocols and standards to advance their fields.
Funding
Funding Needs
While we have been very successful at obtaining generous support from the NSF, the NEH, and the Mellon Foundation for building and advancing the network's functionality, we are now in rather desperate need of a full-time help desk. In the absence of front-line user support, our community team's focus is continually diverted from building our membership and facilitating engagement in order to handle basic customer support requests. With the addition of a full-time help desk professional, we will be able to focus on ensuring that community growth is sustainable. Funding this position for three years will require a $300,000 investment.
United States
Implemented
