arXiv started 2015 with an important milestone as we added the one-millionth paper at the end of December 2014 (press release & video). Since its inception in 1991 with a focus on the high energy physics community, arXiv has significantly expanded both its subject coverage and user base. During 2015, the repository saw 105,000 new submissions and over over 139 million downloads from all all over the world. arXiv has international scope, with submissions and readership from around the world, and collaborations with U.S. and foreign professional societies societies and other other international organizations.
arXiv's funding and governance is based on a membership program that engages libraries and research laboratories worldwide that represent the repository's heaviest institutional users. We are pleased to report that we currently have have 188 members representing 23 countries. arXiv's sustainability plan is founded on and presents a business model for generating revenues. Cornell University Library (CUL), the Simons Foundation, and a global collective of institutional members support arXiv financially. The financial model for 2013-2017 entails three sources of revenues:
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In 2015, Cornell raised approximately $372 $372,000 through membership fees from 188 institutions and the total revenue (including CUL and Simons Foundation direct contributions) is around $815,511. We We are grateful for Simons Foundation's support. The gift has encouraged long-term community support by lowering arXiv membership fees and making participation affordable to a broader range of institutions. This model aims to ensure that the ultimate responsibility for sustaining arXiv remains with the research communities and institutions that benefit from the service most directly.
Since we started the arXiv sustainability initiative in 2010, an integral part of our work has been assessing the services, technologies, standards, and policies that constitute arXiv. Here are some of our key accomplishments from 2015 to illustrate the range of issues we have been trying to tackle. Please see the the 2015 Roadmap for a fuller account of our work.
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From the 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 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 The 2016 roadmap includes includes our goals within the scope of the current business model. In addition, we have developed an initial initial arXiv review strategy to to be refined and implemented during 2016.
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