The First Free Research-Sharing Site, arXiv, Turns 20 With an Uncertain Future

Connotea Imports 2012-07-31

Summary:

"The pioneering effort to share scientific research without the restrictions of journal prices and embargoes, arXiv, turns 20 this month. Its founder, the physicist Paul Ginsparg, reflects on his effort “to level the research playing field” in the August 11 issue of Nature. That’s the kind of expensive journal Mr. Ginsparg originally wanted to work around. We can share some of his published thoughts here. ArXiv, back in 1991 and still today, focuses on physics. “The original plan was for roughly 100 full-text article submissions each year,” writes Mr. Ginsparg, who works at Cornell University. Today the site gets about 75,000 of these “preprints” every year, and it serves up about one million full-text downloads to about 400,000 users every week. It holds roughly 700,000 texts....The next steps for arXiv are going to happen without Mr. Ginsparg in charge. It “was supposed to be a three-hour tour, not a life sentence,” he writes. In September the site will be completely run by staff from the Cornell library. Of course, it costs money to keep the site running and updated with the latest technology to handle images and interactivity embedded in today’s papers. Last year the library asked for contributions from other institutions and got pledges from 85 of them for about $300,000. But arXiv needs a more sustainable model. So next month, Mr. Ginsparg writes, Cornell will hold a meeting of institutions and stakeholders to talk about changing arXiv to a “collaboratively governed, community-supported resource.” That’s in the absence, he notes, of “a wealthy donor willing to provide a small endowment in exchange for far more name recognition than any traditional building donation (hint, hint).” ..."

Link:

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/the-first-free-research-sharing-site-arxiv-turns-20/32778?sid=pm&utm_source=pm&utm_medium=en

From feeds:

Open Access Tracking Project (OATP) » Connotea Imports

Tags:

ru.no oa.new oa.business_models oa.repositories oa.physics oa.arxiv oa.history_of

Authors:

petersuber

Date tagged:

07/31/2012, 12:54

Date published:

08/10/2011, 22:17