The strengths of the arXiv
The arXiv has since day one provided researchers with one of the easiest and most powerful ways to disseminate their research. It is a free way for authors to rapidly share findings directly with the research community, and a free way for the public to access it. The arXiv is home to some of the world's most important work, like the proof of the Poincaré conjecture \citep{2002math.....11159P,2003math......3109P,2003math......7245P} and the discovery of the Higgs Boson \cite{1207.7235,1207.7214}. The free exchange of information has been without equal in most other fields for nearly two decades until very recently with the launch of numerous arXiv clones in new disciplines (see Figure \ref{104668}). The ease of use and the utility of arXiv is both a function of the community it serves--technically advanced researchers with a long-standing tradition of sharing and collaboration--as well as the simplicity of the site. Below we highlight key pieces of technology as well as cultural influences that contributed to the success of arXiv. We then underline in the next section how such pieces may be a limitation to new, and better, practices.
Typesetting with LaTeX
The vast majority of papers on arXiv are authored in LaTeX. LaTeX allows researchers to easily typeset and share their documents. Such a solution was available to all researchers at the outset, however it was only adopted by the exact community it served, namely physicists and mathematicians, who needed to write equation-intensive documents. Thus, LaTeX was crucial to the early success of preprints and peer-to-peer sharing. Today it continues to be used by physicists, mathematicians, computer scientists, and others as it offers the best solution for rendering complex mathematical notation.