C.U. Library Creates New Business Model for Research Database | The Cornell Daily Sun

abernard102@gmail.com 2012-09-17

Summary:

The Cornell University Library has developed a new business model to make arXiv — a free, online database of research articles based at Cornell — financially stable for the future.  Prof. Paul Ginsparg Ph.D. ’81, physics and information science, created arXiv — pronounced “archive” — in Los Alamos, N.M., and introduced it to Cornell when he began teaching at the University in 2002. He told The Sun the database ‘was primarily intended to level the playing field, permitting researchers worldwide to have equal access to breaking research info.’  In addition to being a source of data, arXiv allows researchers to share and test their personal fieldwork with other scientists and mathematicians without delay. It can take up to three years for work to gain approval for publication in scholarly journals, but on arXiv, researchers can share their preprints, or drafts, immediately. ‘In the old days, we would mail photocopies of the manuscript to 100 colleagues around the world. It is not uncommon for an article to take sixmonths [or] even a year before it is accepted,’ said Prof. Chris Henley, physics.  To ensure that it can remain a free resource for the public in the future, arXiv has adopted a new business model, a University press release announced Aug. 28. Institutions that choose to support the program can pay a membership fee to arXiv, with groups that download the most articles paying greater fees.  The new model’s membership program separates the 200 highest-ranking institutions into three tiers of membership, which are determined by number of articles downloaded. Institutions in the highest tier are asked to pay the highest membership fees.  By voluntarily agreeing to pay for membership, institutions help keep arXiv a free resource for the public, librarians said.  ‘Each institution is paying to keep arXiv free and also to help arXiv advance and prosper,’ said Oya Rieger, associate University librarian and the program director of arXiv.  arXiv has also received additional support through the Simons Foundation, which has pledged to donate $50,000 per year for five years, beginning in January 2013.  Due to the Simons Foundation’s funding, arXiv has decreased its membership fees. In addition to lowering fees, the Simons Foundation has encouraged more institutions to pledge their support to the database by promising to match up to $300,000 per year in donations to arXiv, according to Reiger.  To date, more than 120 membership partners have given money, according to arXiv’s website.  The number of articles downloaded and submission rates are steadily increasing, with over 50 million downloads and 76,000 submissions in the past year alone, according to arXiv’s website.  Because of the funding from the Simons Foundation, arXiv has begun considering adding work from additional disciplines like engineering to its database, according to Rieger.  ‘We are building capacity,” Rieger said. “We have been getting requests from different fields … We want to have a methodology so that when a group of scientists come in, we have a system to decide: Can we do this? What would it take to do it?’ ...”

Link:

http://www.cornellsun.com/section/news/content/2012/09/13/cu-library-creates-new-business-model-research-database

From feeds:

Open Access Tracking Project (OATP) » abernard102@gmail.com

Tags:

oa.new oa.business_models oa.comment oa.green oa.cs oa.libraries oa.physics oa.repositories.disciplinary oa.arxiv oa.metrics oa.usage oa.costs oa.sustainability oa.librarians oa.prices oa.mathematics oa.funders oa.memberships oa.simons_foundation oa.engineering oa.cornell.u oa.repositories oa.economics_of

Date tagged:

09/17/2012, 20:12

Date published:

09/17/2012, 16:12