Agreement supports sustainable digital preservation for future generations of scientists
Springer Science+Business Media, publisher of one of the world’s most comprehensive online collections of scientific, technological and medical journals, books and reference works, announces a partnership with the community-governed archive cooperative CLOCKSS to preserve Springer content in the CLOCKSS global archive. Springer publishes over 1,700 journals and more than 5,500 new books a year, as well as the largest STM eBook collection worldwide. Springer is a founding member of CLOCKSS.
The CLOCKSS archive allows research libraries and scholarly publishers, who launched CLOCKSS as a pilot program, to preserve and store its electronic content. Once ingested, the e-content is kept safe and secure in a dark archive until it is triggered and the CLOCKSS Board determines that the content should be copied from the archive and made freely available to all, regardless of prior subscription. Due to the success of the pilot program, the founding members unanimously agreed to incorporate and invite others to participate in CLOCKSS.
Participating CLOCKSS libraries and publishers govern the archive themselves via three tiers of governance – an executive board, a board of directors, and an advisory council. Research libraries working alongside publishers like Springer are able to help shape policy and practice in their communities.
“In a great show of confidence, Springer has joined the CLOCKSS initiatives, putting its complete trust in an archive they helped build,” says Gordon Tibbitts, Co-Chair of CLOCKSS. “Springer is helping to shoulder the responsibility, alongside its publishing peers and research library customers, of keeping their scholarly assets safe and protected for future generations of scholars.”
“As a leading publisher in the STM sector, Springer continues to be innovative by fully supporting initiatives to preserve these digital assets and protect them for future generations,” said Heather Ruland Staines, Global eProduct Manager SpringerLink and member of the CLOCKSS Board of Directors. “Our library partners feel quite strongly that the decision by the CLOCKSS founders to make triggered content available to all for free will help further the work of researchers.”
In addition to storing Springer’s journal content with CLOCKSS, the publisher has submitted a proposal to the CLOCKSS Board outlining a pilot project to test the feasibility and legal issues surrounding preservation of ebook content. Because ebook contracts differ from journal contracts, Springer can only deposit ebook files when its authors’ rights are protected.
For Springer’s announcement, please click here.