The CLOCKSS Archive, like all members of the scholarly community, is adjusting to the unusual circumstances caused by the Coronavirus pandemic. Operations continue as normal. The pandemic has reminded all of us that we live with risks every day; the long-term preservation mission of CLOCKSS seems especially relevant.
In recognition of the difficulties caused by the pandemic, the CLOCKSS Board of Directors has decided that the 2020 annual fees will remain in place for 2021, i.e. no increase.
Here are some highlights of the previous twelve months.
The CLOCKSS Archive has grown by 4.9 million journal articles, to 38.1 million, and by 14,000 books, to 200,000. The journal growth includes over 2 million new articles, plus almost 3 million backfile articles, as we gradually fill-in the backfiles of our publishers.
We have added 21 new publishers to our system. There is a steady stream of inquiries from publishers who recognize the importance and value of long-term preservation for their digital content.
CLOCKSS has added 8 library supporters. Our support from the library community continues to be strong, with 300 libraries on-board, from 14 countries. These libraries recognize the crucial role that they play in the stewardship of the scholarly literature. By supporting the CLOCKSS Archive, libraries help to ensure that their communities will continue to have access to the resources that they rely upon.
Information about new publishers and libraries is announced periodically, and can be found on the News page at https://clockss.org/.
Other important developments over the past twelve months:
– The Mellon-funded project to ensure the preservation of cutting edge enhanced e-books (also known as “interactive scholarly works”) has completed its first two phases and is now midway into the third.
– CLOCKSS continues to embrace new content types, as scholarly publishing continues to evolve. Our engagement with databases and preprints is growing. We are always careful when considering whether to preserve new content types; the Scope Working Group is a committee of the Board of Directors that discusses each instance, and in some cases makes a recommendation to the Board that CLOCKSS should preserve new kinds of content.
– The Board of Directors conducted a Scenario Planning exercise, to imagine potential futures, and to identify the “robust strategies” that would be appropriate in any future.
– CLOCKSS is responding to the increased importance of China in scholarly communications, making a presentation in Changchun at the 2019 International Conference on Integrated Development of Digital Publishing and Digital Libraries (CDPDL), and posting a series of WeChat articles discussing digital preservation in the Chinese language.
– CLOCKSS triggered 11 more journals for Open Access, after the publisher decided to cease making the content available. There are now 64 triggered journals available for Open Access via CLOCKSS.
Our revenues increased in 2019 and we made a small surplus, as more publishers and libraries see the value of CLOCKSS’s service. With over $1.5 million in the bank, the CLOCKSS Archive continues to be financially secure.
In 2020 we are building on our stronger base, to maintain the increased pace of content ingest, to continuously improve the service that we provide to libraries and publishers, and to consider new strategic preservation initiatives that may be of value to our community.
We are proud of our community governance, with an active Board of Directors comprised equally by 24 leading libraries and publishers
(https://www.clockss.org/clockss/Board_of_directors). We continue to believe that the open source LOCKSS software is the leading preservation technology for scholarly content, with our globally distributed network of servers at top-flight libraries
(https://www.clockss.org/Archive-Nodes). And we remain committed to ensuring the long-term availability of scholarly content for end-users, working in close collaboration with libraries and publishers.