After three years of planning, we've started implementing a new arXiv Membership Mode in January 2013. We are pleased to report that we currently have 173 members representing 22 countries. [link to new membership page]
To help with arxiv's support and governance, the membership program aims to engage libraries and research laboratories worldwide that represent arXiv's heaviest institutional users. Each member institution pledges a five-year initial funding commitment to support arXiv. 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:
- CUL provides a cash subsidy of $75,000 per year in support of arXiv's operational costs and an in-kind contribution of all indirect costs, which currently represents 37% of total operating expenses.
- The Simons Foundation contributes $50,000 per year 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-$3,000. In 2013, Cornell raises $315,000 per year through membership fees from 173 institutions.
We are grateful for Simons Foundation's support. The gift aims to encourage long-term community support by lowering arXiv membership fees, making participation affordable to a broader range of institutions. This support helps ensure that the ultimate responsibility for sustaining arXiv remains with the research communities and institutors that benefit from the service most directly.
An integral part of our sustainability planning process has been assessing the technologies, standards, services, and policies that constitute arXiv. The sustainability of arXiv also depends on enabling interoperability and creating efficiencies among repositories with related and complementary content to reduce duplicate efforts. 2013 has been a transition year for arXiv including adding new staff and exploring new organizational models. Here are some of our key accomplishments and areas that are work-in-progress:
Technical Features and Infrastructure
- Started modifying the email handling system to support arXiv admin and moderation ticketing system
- Gathered requirements list to improve tools and interfaces to support moderators in interacting more directly and efficiently with the arXiv system and administrators
- Reviewed use of and experience with the Data Conservancy pilot, which ended in .... We will continue to support modest sized datasets and other materials using the existing ancillary files mechanism (http://arxiv.org/help/ancillary_files), and will ingest data from the pilot as ancillary files to support it long-term.
User Support and Moderation
- Started working with moderators to gather and refine requirements for new tools and interfaces to support their work in a more systematic way.
- Began the process of shifting all communications with users and moderators to a web-based issue tracking system (Request Tracker). The new system will provide us with better tracking and built-in reporting for answering user questions, troubleshooting technical problems, soliciting and following up on moderator input, responding to and resolving moderation appeals, etc.
Governance & Organizational Model
- Created a job description for a Scientific Director position and began effort to recruit an Interim arXiv Scientific Director -
Test and refine the operation of the new governance model -The arXiv principles aims to clarify the authority, responsibilities, and constraints of CUL, MAB, and SAB. Ironing out problems and developing a working system may require some time to test and observe the inner operation of the governance model. For instance, there may be overlaps and tension, due to role ambiguity or personality conflicts. Currently there is not a clear mechanism to settle potential conflicts among the three chambers - CUL, MAB, SAB. CUL will engage SAB and MAB in proactively identifying and addressing problems. The first strategy to reduce/avoid tension is having in place a roadmap for arXiv so that everyone knows the CUL team's priorities and goals. Both boards need to understand the vision, priorities, and challenges to be able to contribute to the arXiv's governance. Status as of 8/13: In progress
Create a working relationship between SAB and MAB - The advisory groups need to regularly exchange information in order to contribute to each other's agendas in a meaningful and useful manner. For instance, CUL will provide joint briefings(reports) to SAB and MAB to highlight common interest areas and complementary perspectives. Having ex officio member representation in each group will also faciliate information sharing and developing a common understanding of the respective goals. Status as of 8/13: In progress as we've appointed representatives for each group
Further refine the benefits of being a member for participating institutions - During the governance planning meetings, several ideas emerged as potential free services for members; however, implementing these features may require significant staff time. Therefore these services need to be considered in the context of arXiv's current maintenance and development priorities. After the MAB is formed, in order to better understand demand for services, CUL will invite ideas/proposals and review them with MAB and SAB. Some of the ideas to be considered include: submission-based data when arXiv's metadata structure is ready; institutional repository bulk download. Member institutions are also very keen on informing their scientists and researchers about arXiv's business model (e.g.,arXiv LibGuide to share with their faculty and students in related disciplines). Often, we are advised to make it easier to find business info on the arXiv webpage (one idea proposed is to put links from abstracts or submission forms to 'sustainability' page). Status as of 8/13: To be discussed during the September SAB meeting
Continue the membership drive - We are very encouraged with the five-year pledges received so far. We want to increase the number of arXiv member institutions to create a large and international network of supporters. Another goal is to be able to reduce the institutional membership fees in the future (current annual institutional fees are in the $1,500-$3,000 range). Status as of 8/13: In progress
New Partnerships & Communication
Define a R&D agenda and seek external funds to advance arXiv - So far, CUL's sustainability planning efforts focused on arXiv's operational budget to support the core services and arXiv's strengths in order to stay mission-centric. One of the key goals ahead of us is to define a research agenda for arXiv. We'll seek input from the advisory boards, users/scientists at large, and information scientists. We will develop a methodology for making decisions about arXiv's R&D projects and partners. One of the challenges will be maintaining/developing arXiv as a distinct system vs. envisioning it as a part of a joint scholarly communication infrastructure (interoperability, research data, tracking funding sources, etc.). This is likely to be a potential tension area between the library community and scientists. Status as of 8/13: Not enough attention has been given to this goal as there were more pressing issues
Continue the dialogue with publishers/societies - In celebration of the arXiv's 20th anniversary, on September 23, 2011 Cornell University Library (CUL) hosted a meeting at Cornell with the representatives from several publishers and societies that are interested in Cornell's sustainability planning efforts. The provides a synopsis of the discussion and recommends next steps for continuing this dialogue. We will resume this investigation and discuss the feasibility and desirability of establishing a research and innovation collaboration in support of arXiv. This effort is envisioned to entail a separate funding stream (created by participating publishers and societies) from the operational budget, which includes resources for the routine and core services currently provided by the arXiv team (including essential updates). Status as of 8/13: Held a conference call in September, outcomes & next steps to be discussed during the MAB meeting (seek feedback from SAB)
Define and communicate measures of success - To address this dynamic process, one goal over the next several months is to create an assessment model to help CUL continue to fine-tune the sustainability model. An assessment plan will also help identify unforeseen developments and making course adjustments to the service and collaboration model. Working with SAB and MAB, we will develop an assessment framework with three key components. Desired outcomes and success measures to measure progress (for instance, dynamics of the governance model, level of financial support, enhancements to arXiv, improvements to moderation system, etc.); Assessment model to gauge and report success based on the identified outcome measures; Plan a five-year review process to enable CUL to conduct a comprehensive self-evaluation with input from the Simons Foundation, MAB, SAB, and other key partners. Status as of 8/13: Not done yet
Develop guidelines for engaging in new partnership - arXiv is approached on a regular basis by outside groups asking for advice or special services. Sometimes the assistance requested is minor, but often it would require devoting some amount of staff effort. We need guidelines for determining under what circumstances we will allocate resources in order to collaborate with an outside organization.Working with the arXiv Boards, develop policies that guide consideration of potential working collaborations with outside groups. Status as of 8/13:Not done yet but have an internal CUL partnership assessment tool for consideration
Enhance communication with users (scientists) - Share opinions received from scientists and users with SAB and MAB.How about seeking input from other scientists, arXiv users? What is working well for them that needs to be maintained? What are their unmet needs? What kinds of changes they want to see implemented? CUL needs to have a systematic way of gathering user feedback and this info ought to be shared with MAB and SAB (both groups are also important channels of input as they represent other groups). Will it be useful to encourage users to send feedback directly to SAB and MAB and make them aware of these advisory groups (through a mailing list)? Also scientists know very little about how arXiv is run and how much it costs. Improve communication, it is important for scientists to know that open access is not free and even open access systems need to be carefully managed. Some scientists may think that they don't need libraries any longer. Be vocal about libraries' new roles. Status as of 8/13: To be discussed during the September SAB meeting Labels: None