APS and BNL Host XXX e-Print Archive Mirror

The APS is establishing, in cooperation with Brookhaven National Laboratory, the first electronic mirror in the United States for the Los Alamos e-Print Archive. The Archive allows authors of physics articles to post their papers on-line and, in its short life, has become an essential resource for physics research. The mirror, a duplicate web-site updated daily, will provide wider and faster access to the heavily used Archive.

Scientists around the world access the Archive to immediately find out about new developments and directions in research, without having to wait for these to appear in a hard copy journal. Posting on the Archive serves authors as an adjunct or an alternative to publication in a traditional physics journal. Created in 1991 by Los Alamos physicist Paul Ginsparg and known informally as XXX after the original web site at xxx.lanl.gov, the Archive presently contains over 100,000 papers in physics and related fields. It operates with support from the US National Science Foundation, the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the US Department of Energy. To speed and facilitate access, the Archive is already mirrored at 14 sites around the world.

APS Editor-in-Chief Martin Blume and Deputy Director Peter Paul of Brookhaven National Laboratory led the collaboration. APS initiated and organized the project, obtained the required equipment and will participate in further software development; Brookhaven is providing space and internet access. Eventually, the APS/BNL mirror could move beyond a passive duplication of the XXX Archive to become a second site for submission of articles and vetting for suitability and size.