Section outline

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    Introduction

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      Welcome! This self-paced course was created as part of the CRAFT-OA project by Anastasiia Afanaseva and edited by Jorina Fenner and Xenia van Edig at TIB – Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology. It represents the first version of this course, published in June 2025. 

      The course is split in two parts: The present course introduces practical first steps in digital preservation of journals. The second course has a focus on the principles of digital archiving and how it works.

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      Who is this course designed for?

      The couse is primarly designed for Diamond OA journal publishers and editors. Therefore, it assumes a certain level of knowledge in the field of Open Access, but does not require familiarity with digital preservation.

      What will you know or be able to do after completing the course?

      • You will be able to tell the key characteristics of digital preservation/long-term archiving.
      • You will be able to list what options are available for long-term archiving.
      • You will be able to indentify the most appropriate option (preferably more than one) for your journal's long-term archiving.
      • You will be able to take the first steps of implementing one or more of these options for journal long-term archiving.

       

      How to use this self-paced course?

      Particants may choose the topic of their interest from the table of contents on the left or go through the course consecutively. In this way, you may also choose the level of detail that you wish to persue on a given topic. At the end of each section you will be able to test what you have learned in a short exercise.
       
      No login or account are required, you can work on the material at your own pace and return to it at any point in time. The section "Additional material" provides insights on how the topics for this course were selected.

    • First things first: What is digital preservation?

      Digital Preservation “refers to the series of managed activities necessary to ensure continued access to digital materials for as long as necessary … to all of the actions required to maintain access to digital materials beyond the limits of media failure or technological and organisational change” (Glossary - Digital Preservation Handbook, n. d.) The terms "digital preservation" and "long-term archiving" are frequently used interchangeably.

      The key goals of digital preservation include maintaining the authenticity, integrity, and usability of digital objects despite technological changes and format obsolescence. This involves regular updates, format migrations, and adherence to standards and best practices.

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    Let's check: is your journal currently digitally archived?

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      If you are unsure about the status the journal that you would like to preserve, there are options to check this: Although it is not possible to check against all existing preservation services at once, this section will introduce how to run a check on the Keepers Registry and in the Fatcat Wiki.

      In the Keepers Registry status information for a given ISSN number can be checked. This is an official way that is preferrable when checking only several journals.

      Here is an example for the information provided in the case of the Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology:

      A screenshot from the site issn.org informing about archiving agencies preserving a journal JASIST and the extent of archive

      Image: Search result for the Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology in the Keepers Registry: https://portal.issn.org/resource/ISSN/2330-1643 

      Another resource that is collecting the data from archiving agencies and visualizing it is Fatcat Wiki, run by Internet Archive.
      Here is an example of the information given about the same journal there:
       
       

      Visualisation of preservation modalities for the journal: dark archive, bright archive, none. Only the data from 3 services.

      Image: Search result for Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology in the Fatcat Wiki: https://fatcat.wiki/container/ytszeoavsvacnciwhmsxbas6tq/coverage

      Only three preservation services are indexed in Fatcat Wiki for this example out of five indexed in Keepers. Notably, the Internet Archive, which hosts Fatcat Wiki, is not indexed there for this particular journal, but only in Keepers.

      If you are interested in checking the information for many journals at once, there are several ways to proceed:
       
      • by downloading the lists from the preservation services (CSV/TSV files) - This is the easiest way without technical know-how, using only official data. However, not all of the services provide such lists. The links to them are listed e.g. in https://the-vault.fly.dev/Data_Validation_and_Sources
      • by using the Fatcat API. This requires some technical know-how and the reliability of the data should be checked.
      • by using the data from Crossref Preservation Database which "returns the preservation status of a Crossref DOI matched against mainstream digital preservation platforms". this also requires a certain technical know-how.
    • Did you find your journal? Choice
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      Let's try and follow the instructions above. Are you able to find out about the status of your journal? Is you journal already part of a long-term archiving system?
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    First steps: What are your options for digital preservation?

    • Before learning more about the key concepts of digital preservation, let's consider some of the paths that are available for digital preservation. This way, you may determine whom to approach for more information and support at your institution. The scenarios may vary from case to case but the list below should give you the right pointers. 

      If you would like to learn more about the technical principles and requirements for digital preservation, consider looking into our "Basic Principles of Digital Preservation" course too.

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      Many Diamond OA journals oparate with a very limited budget and are heavily reliant on in-kind contributions of their editors. Therefore, this list summarises possibilities for preservation that are free of charge for the journal:

      1. Check with your institutional library, national library, and publishing platform. They may have options for you!
      2. If a journal uses OJS, it is possible to use PKP Preservation Network free of charge: https://docs.pkp.sfu.ca/pkp-pn/en/
      3. If a journal is listed in DOAJ, it is possible to apply for it to be preserved via the JASPER project in one of the following ways: 
        • The OJS route: (guidance for PKP PN usage)
        • "The upload route: journals indicate to DOAJ that they wish to preserve their content with CLOCKSS. DOAJ matches the full text sent to them with the article metadata that they hold. We send everything to a remote folder. From this single location, archiving agencies, such as CLOCKSS and Internet Archive (and, later, other “Keepers”) collect the content.
        • The web-crawling route: if you cannot or do not want to export article metadata and full text, your journal website details will be provided to the Internet Archive for inclusion in a best-effort, automated web harvesting.
      4. Check a list of LOCKSS communities for specific national and local options (https://www.lockss.org/join-lockss/networks; https://www.lockss.org/join-lockss/case-studies); you can also try to apply to be preserved in GLN LOCKSS (https://www.lockss.org/gln#publishers).
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    On top of it: Let others archive and use your OA content!

    • This section explains easy steps in which a journal may increase the coverage, archivability and findability of its content on top of their own digital preservation process:
       
      • Use persistent identifiers - not only are they critical for discoverability, but they are also used for metadata crawling by many of the major databases that could promote your content and store copies of it. For example, content with Crossref DOIs is harvested by OpenAlex and Dimensions, and can also be crawled and stored by the Internet Archive. OpenAlex preserves metadata years after journals cease publication. It is also gaining popularity in the bibliometric community, which can be beneficial for your journal's ranking.

      • Publish a self-archiving policy on the journal's website and in Sherpa Romeo

      •  Encourage your authors to deposit copies of their work in repositories
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    Take a peak: How do other handle digital preservation?

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      Alongside contacting experts from your local or national institutions, such as your libraries, and the preservation services, it may be of use to consider these collected ressources to gain an overview:



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    Additional material