Developing ArXivSI to Help Scientists to Explore the Research Papers in ArXiv

Abstract

ArXiv is an important e-print service in the fields of physics, mathematics, computer science etc. It becomes a driving force in scientific communication in those fields. But there are some weaknesses in search function and user interface provided by arXiv platform. The feature widely criticized is that arXiv search platform cannot help user to explore valuable research papers housed in arXiv in a convenient manner. ArXiv search platform just provides a simple search result set for user. It does not help user to “analyze” what is included in the result set and “reveal” some clues for user to better understand and use the search result. In order to help scientists efficiently discovery information they wanted housed in arXiv, the authors developed a system named arXiv Search Interface (arXivSI) *with the help of CUL (Cornell University Library). arXivSI is an external search system to index the metadata of papers stored in arXiv. The most obvious difference between arXivSI and arXiv search platform is that arXivSI provides a more suitable search functions with faceted search features and arXivSI provides a navigable and exploratory interface with visualization analysis features. It can help scientists to explore the research papers stored in arXiv. After arXivSI service is released publicly, it is widely used by scientists from more than 100 countries.