The arXiv roadmap is a living document and communication tool to accommodate continuous prioritization throughout the year. Items are listed in approximate priority order, subject to change based upon consideration of input from arXiv stakeholders, assessment of new opportunities and initiatives as they arise, and progress on next generation arXiv development.
Beginning with this roadmap (2018) we are treating arXiv-NG and "classic" arXiv development, business planning and governance as a single, unified effort. For technical development, some parts of arXiv will be rebuilt anew, while others will be transitioned in stages (utilizing "shims") to new infrastructure.
Much of the work planned for 2018 is essential infrastructure that is required in order to rebuild arXiv. Many tasks involve dependencies and cannot be reprioritized if the overall effort is to move forward.
Related documents: arXiv software releases || arXiv development blog posts
Switch over to New Database Infrastructure: This is a system operations priority.
Status: Completed January 2018.
Author Notification of Reclassification: Add new features to provide authors with notification about reclassification of their paper.
Status: Initial specification complete; policy questions resolved. Will be integrated into submission development.
Auto-endorsement: Shift the auto-endorsement rules to work of a single white-list of recognized email domains. Expand the list of email domains that qualify for auto-endorsement. Develop an admin interface to update the auto-endorsement list.
Status: White list complete. Deferred for integration into development of user management system/interface.
Infrastructure: New infrastructure setup and configuration to support deployment of arXiv-NG services in the cloud.
Status: Beta.
Status: Beta.
Status: In progress.
Submission System: Implements user interfaces and APIs for submissions in the NG architecture.
Status: Alpha.
Status: In progress.
Status: In progress.
Accounts & Authorization: Implements mechanisms for user registration, authentication, and authorization in the NG architecture.
Status: Complete.
Status: Deployed as alpha.
Status: In progress.
Status: Deployed as alpha.
Access & Discovery: Browse: Redeveloping abstract page and subject listing display (home page). Initial focus on abstract pages; to be implemented in Python/Flask.
Status: Completed.
Status: In progress.
APIs & API Gateway: Provides an integrated access point for programmatic consumption of arXiv content.
Status: Alpha together with Search API.
Status: In progress.
Access & Discovery: Search: Combined metadata and full-text search using Elasticsearch and Python/Flask as a standalone application.
Status: Complete. First version released April 2018; ongoing improvements in progress.
Status: Deployed as alpha.
Status: In progress.
Status: Deferred to 2019.
Status: Deferred to 2019.
Publication: Services to support the publication process and core metadata to ensure that arXiv papers and metadata are protected from loss, and that they remain uncorrupted and accessible.
Status: In progress.
Status: Deferred to 2019.
Status: Deferred to 2019.
Enhancement & Discovery: Metadata: Backend support for peripheral metadata, including relations to external resources (e.g. journal articles, datasets, code, etc).
Status: Deferred to 2019.
Reference Linking: arXivLabs project to display linked references to users.
Status: Complete. First version released October 2018; ongoing improvements in progress (see also blog entry).
Public code repositories: Provide access to open source components of arXiv codebase as they become available.
Status: Complete: List of arXiv's public repositories
See also: arXiv Software Releases
NB: approximately 20% of developer effort is devoted to a range of activities that ensure that the service continues to run smoothly; this effort is variable from week to week and is not necessarily scheduled or reflected by discrete tickets in our task management system. Activities include (but are not limited to) the following:
Publish Physics Category Descriptions: Finalize input from moderators and publish the descriptions on arXiv.org.
Status: In progress; awaiting review.
Help Page Updates: Ongoing project to update arXiv help pages.
Status: In progress.
Refine User Account Policies: Update internal documentation on user account policies and identify ways to automate actions.
Status: In progress.
Position Descriptions for Volunteer Roles: Develop position descriptions for various arXiv volunteer roles to be used in recruitment.
Status: Completed. Description of Volunteer Moderator role posted.
Reorganize Moderator Guides: Update moderator documentation. Reorganize the expanded guidelines for moderators.
Status: Completed March 2018.
Society-arXiv Collaboration: Consider adding a new membership category for societies to support arXiv and contribute to its governance. A preliminary proposal will be drafted by an MAB/SAB subgroup to be discussed by the advisory boards.
Status: We'll have a pilot implementation during the 2018 MAB/SAB annual meeting, pilot implementation plan
arXiv Governance and Business Model Assessment: As arXiv is going through a classic renewal process to modernize the architecture, continue to explore the current business and governance model's effectiveness and durability to ensure that arXiv is stewarded to the future in a successful manner.
Status: arXiv is moving to CIS in January 2019, Transition FAQ
A number of special projects from previous roadmaps are being incorporated into next generation arXiv planning and development.
The current 5-year business plan represents a baseline maintenance scenario. It was developed based on an analysis of arXiv's baseline expenses during 2010-2012. It does not factor in any new functionality requirements or other unforeseen resource needs. Although a development reserve was established to fund such expenses, it is not sufficient to subsidize significant development efforts through surplus funds.
Supporting public access mandates: The arXiv public access subgroup has been formed to explore the feasibility and desirability of expanding arXiv's features to support the public access requirements of research funders, and institutions' ability to monitor the compliance of their researchers. The subgroup’s input will be crucial as we seek to understand if and how supporting those requirements might align with arXiv's existing goals and priorities.
Status: In progress (exploratory).
Videos for Moderator Training: Improve the moderator training experience with short videos on using the moderator tools and dealing with common scenarios.
Preprint Service Providers Summit: Collaborate with ASAPbio and bioRxiv to bring together the nascent preprint service providers from several different disciplines to discuss a range of curation and maintenance issues of common interest and to foster information sharing and standard practices.
Status: Completed January 2018.