In June 2016, EDINA and the ISSN IC hosted a workshop as part of the Keepers Extra project. The event brought together representatives of the archiving agencies and libraries reporting into the Keepers Registry and other key stakeholder such as Research Libraries UK, Coalition for Networked Information and Digital Preservation Coalition, to explore potential international action to increase the preservation coverage of e-serials. Following the face to face discussions, the Keeper agencies were invited to submit prioritised suggestions for actions that would support e-journal archiving. This is one of a series of posts outlining key actions that would support long-term stable access to serial content. 

Today publishers not only produce digital serials but also face the additional challenges of managing access and holding content securely over the long term. Archiving agencies support publishers by offering a robust and dependable third party solution for long term storage and back up. This enables publishers to offer assurance of post-cancellation access, and ensures that content would be preserved were the publisher’s platform to cease to exist.  Participation in an archiving initiative is thus an important factor for libraries considering subscription to e-journals. Publishers can support archiving in a number of ways.

Firstly, publishers can join at least one reputable third party archiving agency that reports into the Keepers Registry and promote their participation to customers. In this way, publishers not only contribute financially to the long term sustainability of their content but also help to raise awareness of preservation among their peers, encouraging discussion and understanding of e-journal preservation strategies, risks, and business models among the publisher community.

Secondly, publishers can take preservation requirements into account within their internal workflows and production processes.  Following current guidance to ensure that their publications are created in ways that encourage and enable preservation (i.e. use of certain file types, metadata), and that they are packaged and delivered in standard formats that make them easier to work with.

Thirdly, publishers should be vocal about the importance they place on long term archiving. Publishing societies and membership organisations should promote the value and benefits of archiving among members: these include not only the improved security of content, and long term reputational benefit, but also improved clarity of data and the support and establishment of international data standards.  A strong preservation strategy is a marker of best practice, an indicator of the quality of content and a significant part of any offer to customers.

Learn how research libraries can support e-journal archiving

Learn how national libraries can support e-journal archiving