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As 2017 is the last year of the current current five-year business model , working with the Member Advisory Board (MAB), the arXiv team has created a sustainability model for 2018–2022. The purpose of the plan is to lay out a business model for arXiv including anticipated expenses, potential revenue streams, value propositions, and communication strategies. The plan entails only the regular operation of arXiv—in other words, what we call “keeping the lights on.” It should be seen as a baseline operational budget, as it does not factor in additional expenses required for R&D or new development projects such as arXiv-NG.
What is arXiv’s financial model through 2017?
Since 2010, Cornell’s sustainability planning initiative has aimed to reduce arXiv’s financial burden and dependence on a single institution, instead creating a broad-based, community-supported resource. arXiv’s funding and governance for the current operation (Classic arXiv) is based on a membership program engaging libraries and research laboratories worldwide that represent the repository’s heaviest institutional users. As of February 2017, we have 206 members representing 25 countries. arXiv’s sustainability plan is founded on and presents a business model for generating revenues and a set of governance, editorial, and financial principles. 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:
CUL provides a cash subsidy of $75,000 per year in support of arXiv’s operational costs. In addition, CUL makes an in-kind contribution of all indirect costs, which currently represents 37% of total operating expenses.
The Simons Foundation contributes $100,000 per year ($50,000 prior to 2016) in recognition of CUL’s stewardship of arXiv. In addition, the Foundation matches $300,000 per year of the funds generated through arXiv membership fees.
Each member institution pledges a five-year funding commitment to support arXiv. Based on institutional usage ranking, the annual fees are set in four tiers from $1,500 to $3,000.
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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. With significant input from the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) and the Member Advisory Board (MAB), during the 2015 annual meetings, the arXiv team reached the conclusion that in addition to the current business model with a focus on maintenance, the arXiv team needs to embark on a significant fundraising effort, pursuing grants and collaborations. Based on the conclusions of 10 months of planning activities in 2016, the arXiv team has successfully secured a $450,000 grant from the Sloan Foundation to initiate the next-generation arXiv (arXiv-NG) initiative. The 18-month project will enable us to plan and begin to improve the architecture of this critical scientific infrastructure. We anticipate that a multi-phase design and development of a next-generation arXiv (arXiv-NG) will require approximately three years with an additional $2+ million budget, including requirements specification, evaluation of alternate strategies and partnerships, design of a new system architecture, assessment, and deployment. As we develop arXiv-NG during the next three years, we'll continue to rely on the existing system (Classic arXiv) and are committed to continue its robust services.
Another source of funding in support of arXiv-NG came from the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2). An initial gift of $200,000 for 2017 will support a collaboration between the Cornell University Library and Cornell Computing and Information Science (CIS). This donation will allow us to hire a Research and Innovation Fellow to collaborate with the arXiv team in designing and integrating a series of updated, research-oriented features for arXiv. The ultimate goal is to integrate tools emerging from research into the production system to improve user and moderator experience.
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Tier | Current Fee | New Fee |
Tier 1: 1 – 251–25 | $3,000 | $4,400 |
Tier 2: 26 – 5026–50 | $3,000 | $3,800 |
Tier 3: 51 – 10051–100 | $2,500 | $3,200 |
Tier 4: 101 – 101– 150 | $2,000 | $2,500 |
Tier 5: 151 – 200151–200 | $1,500 | $1,800 |
Tier 6: 201+ | $1,500 | $1,000 |
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Given the erosive effect of inflation, a $3,000 fee in 2012 is worth $2,587 in 2016. In other words, total arXiv member fees are worth about 85% of their 2012 value.
arXiv’s user support and development costs have increased due to the incorporation of unforeseen or underestimated expenses, including staffing. The new lines include Scientific Director (vacant, 0.4 FTE), CTO (0.30 FTE), paid moderation for physics.gen-ph, and 1.5 FTE additional developer time (including UX; see arXiv 2016 organization chart ).
The operational cost upsurge reflects the increase in user submissions and the proportional increase in workload for administrators. As illustrated below, the annual submissions since 2012 have increased by 35%. During 2012–2016, the number of submissions grew from 84,000 to 113,400.
The new tier and fee structure aims to be more equitable as the number of downloads from the top 20 institutions corresponds to 22% of the total downloads, while the sum of their contributions corresponds to less than 10% of all member contributions.
In addition to the CUL’s indirect contributions, the Library’s direct financial contribution will increase to $170,000, including the salary of Program Director (.40 FTE), which is not considered an indirect expense line.
To simplify the application of the fee structure for both member institutions and for arXiv, institutional tier rankings will be reviewed every three or five years and assigned based on a three- or five-year rolling average of use (institutional downloads).
Without an increase in the member fees, arXiv would run a deficit of $450,000 for 2018–2022, an average of $90,000 per year. If CUL is unable or unwilling to absorb increased operating deficits, arXiv support and development spending will need to be cut or the service will need to be transitioned to a new host.
What is the value proposition of the arXiv Institutional Membership Program for libraries?
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Your membership fees are essential to garner the $300,000 per year matching funds from the Simons Foundation. These funds encourage long-term community support by keeping arXiv membership fees low, making participation affordable to a broader range of institutions.
You will be able to participate in arXiv’s ongoing governance through the Member Advisory Board, which provides input for project prioritization, new service offerings, financial planning, use of discretionary funds, future technical developments, and policy decisions.
You will have access to enhanced institutional use statistics.
Each member library will receive public acknowledgement of their financial support both on arXiv.org and locally to the institution via an IP-generated banner. We would like to expand our strategies to make sure that scientists are aware of the role of libraries in ensuring arXiv’s sustainability. Please send us your ideas to support@arxiv.org!
Greater integration with, and implementation of, Open Access scholarship as the arXiv team works closely with related and complementary initiatives such as SCOAP3, Open Archives Initiative (OAI) , ORCiD, Center for Open Science, and Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR).
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