Scholarly publications are key to the transfer of knowledge from scholars to others. However, research papers are information-dense, and as the volume of the scientific literature grows, the need for new technology to support the reading process grows. In contrast to the process of finding papers, which has been transformed by Internet technology, the experience of reading research papers has changed little in decades. The PDF format for sharing research papers is widely used due to its portability, but it has significant downsides including: static content, poor accessibility for low-vision readers, and difficulty reading on mobile devices. This paper explores the question "Can recent advances in AI and HCI power intelligent, interactive, and accessible reading interfaces -- even for legacy PDFs?" We describe the Semantic Reader Project, a collaborative effort across multiple institutions to explore automatic creation of dynamic reading interfaces for research papers. Through this project, we've developed ten research prototype interfaces and conducted usability studies with more than 300 participants and real-world users showing improved reading experiences for scholars. We've also released a production reading interface for research papers that will incorporate the best features as they mature. We structure this paper around challenges scholars and the public face when reading research papers -- Discovery, Efficiency, Comprehension, Synthesis, and Accessibility -- and present an overview of our progress and remaining open challenges.

翻译：学术出版物是知识从学者向他人传播的关键载体。然而，研究论文信息密度高，随着科学文献数量的增长，对支持阅读过程的新技术需求也在增加。与通过互联网技术已发生变革的论文查找过程不同，阅读研究论文的体验数十年来几乎没有改变。用于共享研究论文的PDF格式因其便携性而广泛使用，但存在显著缺点，包括：内容静态化、对低视力读者可访问性差，以及在移动设备上阅读困难。本文探讨了这样一个问题：“近期人工智能和人机交互领域的进展能否为研究论文——甚至包括传统PDF——提供智能、交互式且可访问的阅读界面？”我们描述了语义读者项目，这是一项跨机构合作项目，旨在探索自动创建研究论文动态阅读界面的方法。通过该项目，我们开发了十种研究原型界面，并针对超过300名参与者和真实用户开展了可用性研究，结果表明学者阅读体验得到改善。我们还发布了一个面向研究论文的生产级阅读界面，将逐步整合其中最佳功能。本文围绕学者和公众在阅读研究论文时面临的挑战——发现、效率、理解、综合与可访问性——展开阐述，并概述了我们的研究进展与尚待解决的开放性挑战。