ArXiv.org e-print archive

arXiv.org (formerly known as the LANL preprint archive) is an archive for electronic preprints of scientific papers in the fields of physics, mathematics, computer science and biology originally hosted at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, now hosted and operated by Cornell University and mirrored worldwide. The archive was originally developed by Paul Ginsparg (see e-print for the story).

It was started in 1991 as an archive for preprints in physics and later expanded to include mathematics, computer science and, most recently, quantitative biology. As of March 2004, arxiv.org contains about 267,000 preprints and between 3,000 and 4,000 new preprints are added every month.

arXiv.org was formerly known as xxx.lanl.gov but it changed its name when it was found that censorware programs were blocking access to it from various sites, under the impression that the three letters 'X' in its name implied that it was a pornographic site. The existence of arxiv.org was one of the precipitating factors that led to the current revolution in scientific publishing, known as the Open Access movement, with the possibility of the eventual disappearance of traditional scientific journals.

A popular way to access the mathematics portion of arXiv is through the University of California, Davis's Front, a web portal that offers powerful search functions and a more user friendly interface. For this reason, the mathematics arXiv is referred to, by some mathematicians, as (the) Front.

Professional mathematicians and scientists, such as Grigori Perelman in 2002 and Richard Arenstorf in 2004, regularly upload their mathematical proofs to arXiv for worldwide access and reviews.

See also: Public Library of Science

External links

• www.arXiv.org website
• A New York Times article about the arXiv.org
• 'Creating a global knowledge network': a talk by Paul Ginsparg
• Tragic loss or good riddance? The impending demise of traditional scholarly journals by Andrew Odlyzko
• Front: a portal to mathematics on arXiv through UC Davis