David Ruddy 
Cornell University Library 
21 April 2015 
arXiv.org as a repository 
of record: 
opportunities and 
challenges 
 Background, status, objectives 
 Brief review of arXiv article 
processing 
 Current arXiv repository features 
 OA mandates and new 
requirements 
 arXiv support and governance 
 
Overview 
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 A moderated distribution service 
for research in physics, math, 
computer science, quantitative 
biology, quantitative finance, and 
statistics (users of TeX). 
 Established at LANL in 1991 
 Operated by Cornell University 
Library since 2001 
 Author submitted content, 
typically article-length e-prints 
 Open repository: no fee for 
submitting or downloading articles 
 Current  article count: 1,030,637 
 2014 statistics:  
 97,517 submissions 
 91.1 million downloads 
Background 
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arXiv monthly submission statistics 
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arXiv submission statistics 
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 Rapid dissemination of research 
 Perpetual, barrier-free access to all 
accepted submissions 
 Accurate and persistent record of 
research scholarship and priority 
Primary 
objectives 
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 Five-screen submission process 
 Agree to arXiv policies and grant license 
 Upload file(s 
 Confirm TeX file has processed correctly 
 Enter metadata 
 Confirm your submission 
 Submission details go to subject 
moderators 
 Is it scientific research? 
 Is it of interest, relevance, and value to a 
particular research community 
 Paper slotted for release within 24 
hours, unless flagged by moderator 
or automated checks 
arXiv article 
processing 
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 Widely and heavily used by 
practicing researchers  
 Openly accessible content 
 Commitment to persistence  
 Strictly controlled versioning and 
alteration/removal procedures 
 Accepts modest sized “ancillary 
files” (datasets) associated with 
articles 
 Users can associate ORCID iDs with 
their arXiv accounts 
 Submitters can assign any CC 
license to their work 
 
 
Current arXiv 
repository 
features 
(relevant to OA 
mandates) 
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http://arxiv.org/help/orcid 
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 HEFCE, REF, RCUK 
 OpenAIRE 
 EU Horizon 2020 
 FP7 
 US federal agencies responding to 
2013 White House directive to 
ensure public access to research: 
NSF, DOE, NASA 
 CHORUS, SHARE 
Open access, or 
public access, 
mandates 
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 Expand (complicate) article 
metadata to include: 
 Project identifier and funding agencies 
 Date of acceptance  
 Status of manuscript 
 Improve author identification and 
affiliation tools 
 Promote the use of ORCID iDs in arXiv 
 Improve collection of author and 
affiliation data at submission time 
 Legacy author and affiliation data 
 Improve license data for arXiv 
articles 
 Allow institutional repositories to 
pull arXiv articles 
New arXiv 
features being 
discussed 
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 Support model 
 Institutions worldwide 
 Simons Foundation 
 Cornell University Library 
 Two advisory boards 
 Scientific Advisory Board 
 Member Advisory Board 
 JISC is a member of MAB 
 Current sub-committee of MAB 
looking at arXiv/IR interoperability, 
to identify needs 
arXiv support and 
governance 
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2014 institutional 
arXiv usage data: 
top 25 users 
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