My biggest effort over the past few years has finally come to some preliminary fruition, I am happy to see it come to life: a development github site and a phase-1 MVP deployment at openarxiv.org on building a novel Community-driven Open Research Ecosystem (CORE).
Here is the README.md file:
CORE: Community-driven Open Research Ecosystem
OpenArxiv (CORE) as a live instantiation of CORE, is a novel platform for the ePrint service backed by rigorous, community-based evaluation of scientific research leading to a self-sustaining research ecosystem — built with vanilla PHP 8+, MySQL/MariaDB, and modern MVC techniques.
🌟 Why CORE?
A deep structural crisis in academia requires a complete reform for continued scientific innovation. CORE is designed to ensure fairness, transparency, and efficiency in knowledge dissemination, resource allocation, and career advancement, creating the conditions for a new era of innovation in basic research.
- The overarching principle is the Diversity Principle — advocating for a merit-based system that constantly cultivates diverse ideas and directions to foster innovation.
- Community-driven — engaging the entire community so that participation is all-inclusive, voices are democratic, and diverse ideas and directions in research are
preserved and actively promoted; also implying that it mirrors the structure of a
healthy society with built-in monopoly-breaking measures against the top and a ro-
bust safety net for the bottom. - Open — indicating an open-ended, open-minded, open-to-risk, and dynamically calibrated system that maintains transparency of the procedure and process while protecting each individual’s will and privacy, constantly evolving to meet new challenges and resist gaming.
- Research — requiring scientific, rigorous, and merit-based ethos and approaches.
- Ecosystem — implementing healthy, self-correcting feedback loops and proper incentive mechanisms in a living, self-regulating system.
CORE introduces a Rigorous Dual Evaluation System for STEM and other research fields to implement proper incentives and complete the feedback cycle:
- Three research activities — original research, indirect contributions (e.g., peer review), and funding/resource requests — are evaluated using quantitative, continually refined metrics.
- Quality over quantity — the community-based evaluation system rewards the quality, not the quantity, of accomplishments (AL).
- Credit-based incentives — members earn credits (ECP) and advance in roles as they accumulate experience and contributions.
- High-risk, high-reward research — gets a better chance of being funded through sophisticated incentive mechanisms.
🚀 Features (Phase 1 — MVP)
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Authentication | Email/password registration and login with “Remember Me” support |
| ORCID Integration | Login and register via ORCID |
| ePrint Repository | Upload, view, revise, and stream PDF documents |
| Draft Workflow | Draft submission → approval → finalization pipeline |
| Math Support | MathJax for Tex/Latex to SVG ($...$, \$ to Escape) |
| Member Profiles | View and edit profiles with extended metadata |
| Research Branches | 4-level hierarchy: Discipline → Field → Area → Direction |
| Research Topics | Multi-parent emerging cross-disciplinary topics |
| Admin Dashboard | Moderation tools for administrators (role ≥ 600) |
| Display Style | Clean, academic, minimalist design |
💡 Upcoming Major Features
- Evaluation system — rating, review, and comment workflows
- Achievement Levels (AL) — quantified researcher accomplishments
- Earned Credit Points (ECP) — credit-based incentive system
- Committees — governance and moderation bodies
- Document types — 19+ document categories (o-doc, r-doc, a-doc, f-doc, p-doc, etc.)
- Collaboration — value-added features for collaborations / teams
- Member Organizations — sponsoring member institutions, foundations, etc.
- Funding system — allocation of research resources
- Job/Hiring system — using the new evaluation system
- Voting system — election and award workflows
- Tagging system — fraud / user-defined tags
- API & theming — plugin architecture and custum themes
🛠️ Tech Stack
| Component | Technology |
|---|---|
| Backend | PHP 8+ (strict types, OOP) |
| Database | MySQL / MariaDB via PDO |
| Frontend | HTML5, Vanilla CSS, Vanilla JS |
| Authentication | Password hashing, ORCID OAuth 2.0 |
No frameworks. No Composer. No dependencies. Pure vanilla PHP.
Custom MVC Architecture. Front Controller. Responsive UI.
🔒 Security
- CSRF protection — tokens validated on all POST requests
- XSS prevention —
htmlspecialchars()on all user-generated output - SQL injection — PDO prepared statements exclusively
- Password storage —
password_hash()/password_verify() - Visibility & access — Guest (1) → Member (10) → Rater (20) → Reviewer (30) → Moderator (40) → Leader (50)
- Admin roles — Viewer (100) → Updater (200) → Editor (300) → Senior Editor (400) → Chief Editor (500) → Administrator (600)
📂 Project Structure (MVC Architecture)
core/
├── public/ # Web root (only public entry point)
│ ├── index.php # Front controller
│ ├── js/ # Javascripts
│ └── css/ # Stylesheets
├── app/
│ ├── controllers/ # Business logic (skinny controllers)
│ │ ├── admin/ # Admin controllers
│ │ ├── api/ # Ajax lookups
│ │ └── XxxController.php
│ ├── models/ # Database interactions (fat models)
│ │ ├── Xxx.php
│ │ ├── evaluations/ # Evaluation models
│ │ ├── lookups/ # Lookup/Dictionary tables
│ │ ├── parameters/ # Model parameters
│ │ └── system/ # System utilities
│ ├── views/ # HTML templates
│ │ ├── partials/ # Shared partials (header, footer)
│ │ ├── errors/ # Error pages (400, 403, 404, 500)
│ │ ├── auth/ # Login, register, ORCID
│ │ ├── member/ # Member profiles
│ │ ├── repository/ # Document views
│ │ ├── admin/ # Admin dashboard
│ │ └── home/ # Home page
│ ├── engine/ # System mechanics (ErrorHandler)
│ └── config/
│ └── routes.php # Route definitions
├── config/
│ ├── config.php # Global settings
│ └── Database.php # PDO singleton connection
├── database/
│ └── mysql.txt # Full database schema with seed data
├── storage/
│ ├── uploads/ # Secure PDF/Zip storage
│ └── logs/ # Error logs
├── plugins/ # Extensibility (MathJax support)
├── themes/ # UI themes (high-contrast)
└── references/ # Reference articles (read-only)
📦 Requirements
- PHP 8.0+
- MySQL 8.0+ / MariaDB 10.4+
- Web server (Apache/Nginx) or PHP built-in server for development
⚙️ Installation & Setup
- Local installation and development
# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/wtannd/core.git
cd core
# Create the database
mysql -u root -p < database/mysql.txt
# Copy and edit configuration
cp config/config.example.php config/config.php
# Edit config.php with your database credentials and settings
# Start the development server
php -S localhost:8000 -t public/
Visit http://localhost:8000 in your browser.
- Deployment on web hosting service
- Upload your entire repository (excluding any local config.php) to the server.
- Create DB on Host using the host’s control panel (like cPanel)
- Run Intall Script by navigating to https://yourdomain.com/install.php.
- Enter the database credentials you just created and your desired admin login.
- Delete the install script once it succeeds.
📄 License
This project is licensed under the GNU GPLv3 License – see the LICENSE file for details.
📌 Links & References
- Website: openarxiv.org
- ORCID: orcid.org
- MirrorUniverse: mirroruniverse.org
- References: Original_Motivation, Example_OePRESS, CORE
