2014 arXiv Roadmap
Technical
Items are listed in approximate priority order but this may be adjusted based on ongoing discussions with the Scientific and Member Advisory Boards.
Improve moderator web interface, add personal checkbox - We want to encourage moderator use of the web interface to streamline their workflow. The moderator web interface was significantly extended and improved in 2014. Work will improve clarity based on the feedback we have received and provide each moderator with the ability to mark submissions as checked.
Allow moderators to recategorize articles via the web interface - We want to encourage moderator use of the web interface to streamline their workflow and to avoid unnecessary reliance on admins as intermediaries. Moderators should be able to make specific category change recommendations via the web interface that result in alerts to other appropriate moderators.
Develop and integrate internal automatic overlap detection for new submissions - Develop pipeline for checking of new submissions against existing corpus and staged submissions. Develop warnings for administrators and moderators based on overlap check results. Make these warnings available for administrators and moderators.
Add ORCID author identifier support - We would like to support ORCID identifiers for better interoperability with other repositories implementing authority control and also as a route toward providing institutional statistics for member organizations (ORCID has implemented storage of affiliation identifiers in the profile data). ORCID identifiers will be associated with arXiv user accounts via the ORCID OAuth process.
Category aliasing for cs/math/stat - There are three category merges (aliases) requested. Some of these require extra work because there are pre-0704 (old identifiers, see http://arxiv.org/help/arxiv_identifier) submissions where the primary category is becoming an alias and thus the historical primary archive to identifier prefix correspondence will be broken. Includes work to create tools for the bulk re-categorization of submissions affected by this and later merges.
Update, reorganize and better document the TeX system - TeX is currently a central component of our article processing, approximately 85% of submissions are TeX or PDFTeX source. We need to put effort into updating our TeX installation, improving our packaging so that it can more easily be deployed and updated, and better documenting our installation. We need to update the tex binaries to the current version of TeX Live (currently TeX Live 2011, should use 2014), update our set of style files (last update was 2011), and also update our ghostscript installation.
Migrate functions away from old PHP/Tapir codebase and into Perl/Catalyst - We have been gradually replacing old PHP/Tapir code with more maintainable and better integrated Perl/Catalyst code.
Replace and improve email alert system - Replace the email alert system to allow easy subscribe/unsubscribe via web interface tied to user accounts, ensure scalability and allow customization.
Assign DOIs to data - We accept data as ancillary files http://arxiv.org/help/ancillary_files but offer relatively little support. It would be more helpful to assign DataCite DOIs from EZID to ancillary files thus making them citeable. Also, we have discontinued the Data Conservancy pilot and plan to pull the DC data in as ancillary files (see http://arxiv.org/help/data_conservancy and http://blogs.cornell.edu/dsps/2013/06/14/arxiv-data-conservancy-pilot/).
Develop and integrate internal instance of classifier code - We should integrate the classifier code into the arXiv production system rather than using API to code running on Paul Ginsparg's research machine. This was agreed by the SAB on 2013-09.
Ingest arXiv content into CUL Archival Repository - While arXiv adopts good practices for data backup and management, it is far from being an archival collection. We should have regular ingest of all arXiv content into a separate archival system and propose using CULAR (Cornell University Library Archival Repository). Work is require to script creation of submission packages (SIPs) for initial ingest and regular incremental updates.
Add metadata fields for funding information, article status and migration of old content - There have been several requests for support for additional metadata. These include work to add funding information (requests from supporting members), for the ability to store version information (author manuscript, publisher version, etc.), and for publication information of migrated content (mainly for conference proceedings in computer science). These changes will require extensions of our internal metadata format and handling in appropriate submission interfaces, admin interfaces, moderator screens, search systems, and data export facilities. It may well be appropriate to generalize our models/code in some places.
User Support and Moderation
Define and implement new tools and interfaces for moderators - Work with existing moderators and IT to define and implement new tools and interfaces to support the work of moderators. See "Improve tools and interfaces to support moderators" in Technical section above.
Evaluate administrative processes - Work with Scientific Director to evaluate arXiv administration processes and staffing, especially in light of evolving moderation tools.
Evaluate submission and moderation processes and user documentation — Work with Scientific Director to evaluate arXiv submission and moderation processes, in order to better define procedures for author appeals and to update user documentation to be consistent with arXiv policy.
Business Model & Governance
Test and refine the operation of the new governance model -The arXiv principles aim to clarify the authority, responsibilities, and constraints of CUL, MAB, and SAB. Ironing out problems and developing a working system will require some time to test and observe the inner operation of the governance model. We will continue our engagements with the advisory boards and experiment with different communication strategies to share our vision, priorities, and challenges and to seek their input. work-in-progress
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. We will engage the MAB and SAB in discussing possible ideas and assess their potential value and requirements from the arXiv team. work-in-progress - discussion item for SAB/MAB meetings
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. We recently formed two MAB subcommittees. The first one aims to assess and revise our tier model to consider other classes of member categories such as scientific societies (to be implemented during the next 5-year plan). The second group will focus on fund raising policies & strategies such as the potential addition of a 'Give' button to arXiv homepage to encourage donations. work-in-progress - discussion item for MAB meeting
New Partnerships & Communication
Continue the dialogue with publishers/societies - Continue information exchange with publishers/societies represented in arXiv, especially in exploring the evolving public policies and open access mandates. One of the ideas we are considering is implementing a pilot with the IOP for facilitating deposit of author version of articles to arXiv after they are published. work-in-progress (IOP pilot delayed due to the publisher's current focus on CHORUS)
Define and communicate measures of success - Over the next several months, we want to create an assessment model to help CUL continue to fine-tune the sustainability model. Working with SAB and MAB, we will draft desired outcomes and success measures (for instance, dynamics of the governance model, level of financial support, enhancements to arXiv, improvements to moderation system, etc.). work-in-progress