Join CLOCKSS
Ensure scholarship is safely and securely preserved for future generations.
Why Participate in CLOCKSS?
Of the Community, For the Community - CLOCKSS is governed by and for our stakeholders. Our Board of Directors has an equal number of librarians and
publishers making decisions together about policies, procedures, priorities, and when to trigger content.
As the only dark archive that assigns a Creative Commons license to all triggered digital content, CLOCKSS benefits the greater global scholarly community by enabling permanent Open Access to abandoned and orphaned publications. As a result, recovered content becomes perpetually available to anyone with Internet access.
Standing the Test of Time - CLOCKSS employs world class LOCKSS opensource preservation software developed by Stanford University libraries. Digital content is stored in the CLOCKSS archive with no user access unless a “trigger” event occurs.
CLOCKSS’s secure, robust, and decentralized infrastructure can withstand threats from technological, economic, environmental, and political failures. A destructive event in one location won’t jeopardize the survival of preserved digital content because our 11 other international locations serve as mirror sites to back-up and repair the disrupted location’s archive.
Financially Secure and Sustainable - As an independent 501(c)(3) not-for-profit charitable organization, CLOCKSS is committed to keeping fees affordable. We enable libraries and publishers of all sizes and budgets in all parts of the world to participate in CLOCKSS. Low operating costs make it possible to keep this commitment.
Library participation costs include an annual contribution based on your materials budget (listed below). Consortial pricing is available.
CLOCKSS 2024 fees for libraries
| - Libraries Materials Budgets - | - Annual Contribution - |
| Under $1 million | $520 |
| $1 - 2 million | $690 |
| $2 - 3 million | $1,380 |
| $3 - 4 million | $2,080 |
| $4 - 5 million | $2,770 |
| $5 - 7 million | $3,460 |
| $7 - 9 million | $4,835 |
| $9 - 11 million | $6,225 |
| $11 - 13 million | $7,610 |
| $13 - 15 million | $8,995 |
| $15 - 20 million | $10,370 |
| $20 - 25 million | $13,830 |
| Over $25 million | $17,295 |
To participate in CLOCKSS or set up a webinar introduction, please contact us here, or at +1 (248) 848-7079
Research Libraries – Value Proposition
Preservation is content insurance. When scholarly content transitioned to electronic delivery, academic libraries realized that they no longer hold copies of the content. These libraries do not feel secure that the content they license from publishers is guaranteed to always be accessible to the library’s users. CLOCKSS is a trusted 3d-party preservation archive. Its TRAC audit by the Center for Research Libraries has a score of 14 out of 15, including perfect scores for Technologies,
Technical Infrastructure, Security, and for Organizational Infrastructure. When libraries support CLOCKSS they safeguard the long-term survival of digital content in their libraries, maximizing return on investment and ensuring use for future generations.
CLOCKSS provides it. The CLOCKSS Archive holds a publisher’s content on twelve servers around the world. Using LOCKSS software, CLOCKSS ensures that the digital content remains healthy, so that if the content ever needs to be triggered for access CLOCKSS is able to retrieve it, migrate it to new formats, and deliver it.
CLOCKSS is governed by the community. CLOCKSS is a free-standing charitable, non-profit organization in the U.S. Its Board of Directors is comprised of twelve leading academic libraries and twelve leading academic publishers. The Board discusses and sets policies, practices, and prices.
CLOCKSS is supported by the community and is financially strong. CLOCKSS receives fees from over 491 publishers, and contributions from 300 libraries. CLOCKSS annual revenues are $1.7 million, with a small annual surplus. We generate a surplus so that CLOCKSS has a reserve in case of a disaster, and to give us a cushion to keep fees low in an uncertain and changing scholarly information landscape. In addition, CLOCKSS is committed to preservation over the long term, and the costs for preserving and migrating content grow over time.
CLOCKSS makes content available Open Access. In the rare cases that CLOCKSS triggers content, it is made available Open Access to everyone. CLOCKSS has so far triggered 66 journals. Before CLOCKSS triggers content for access this must be approved by the Board.
CLOCKSS has flexible and robust processes. CLOCKSS can access publishers’ content by harvest or FTP. The harvest method is especially helpful for capturing more elements of new dynamic and evolving forms of digital scholarship.
CLOCKSS is a partner to libraries and publishers. As a member of the scholarly publishing community, the CLOCKSS Archive is a “good citizen”, providing a key infrastructure service, and participating in industry activities and contributing to the evolution of the academic literature.
To participate in CLOCKSS or set up a webinar introduction, please contact us here, or at +1 (248) 848-7079
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Please download and complete the Supporting Libraries Form