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- Evaluated the arXiv administration processes in light of evolving moderation tools and staffing needs and created and posted a new position (arXiv Operations Manager) to ensure an for an optimal administrative staffing configuration
- Reviewed the current arXiv endorsement procedures and policies across all subject categories for seeking greater uniformity and transparency
- Proposed and modified a new appeal process to work toward uniform policies across all subject categories.
- Continued improving tools and interfaces to allow moderators to interact more directly and efficiently with the arXiv system and administrators based on input from the Scientific Advisory Board and moderators (to be continued in 2016).
- Initiated a process to update, reorganize, and better document the TeX system, which is a central component of our article processing and will continue this project in 2016
- Added ORCID author identifier support for better interoperability with other repositories implementing authority control and also as a route toward providing institutional statistics for member organizations
- Began to review the "stock" messages used by arXiv administrators when communicating with submitters and other arXiv users to improve their usefulness
- Developed a set of questions for assessing and accepting new subject domains to arXiv
- Piloted an online donation button to experiment with ways to expand arXiv’s revenue sources.
- Investigated interoperability requirements to enable communication/exchange between arXiv and institutional repositories
- Recruited over ?? new moderators as arXiv is a moderated scholarly communication forum informed and guided by scientists and the scientific cultures it serves. Over 150 experts worldwide moderate submissions to verify that they are topical and of interest to the scientific community, follow accepted standards of scholarly communication, and are classified in the appropriate subject categories
- Held an annual meeting for Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) and Member Advisory Board (MAB) to discuss IT development priorities, financial state, moderation tools and policies, and fund raising strategies.
he conclusion of the recent SAB and MAB annual meetings was that the arXiv team needs to embark on a significant fund raising effort, pursuing grants and collaborations.
From users' perspective, arXiv continues to be a successful, prominent subject repository system serving the needs of many scientists around the world. However, under the hood, the service is facing significant pressures. The conclusion of the recent SAB and MAB annual meetings was that, in addition to the current business model with a focus on maintenance, the arXiv team needs to embark on a significant fund raising effort, pursuing grants and collaborations. We need to first create a compelling and coherent vision to be able to persuasively articulate our fund raising goals beyond the current sustainability plan that aims to support the baseline operation. We’d like to use the approaching 25th anniversary of arXiv as an important milestone to engage us in a series of vision-setting exercises. The 2016 roadmap includes our goals within the scope of the current business model. In In addition, we have developed an initial action plan for for .... arXiv review strategy to be refined and implemented during 2016.
Cornell University Library, arXiv Team
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