The Directory of Open Access Journal (DOAJ) - Lund University Libraries and the e-Depot of the National Library of the Netherlands (KB) today announced the start of a cooperation in order to secure long-term preservation of open access journals. The Swedish Library Association is generously acting as sponsor.
Long-term preservation of scholarly publications is of major importance for the research community. New formats of scholarly publications, new business models and new ways of dissemination are constantly being developed....
The composition of the DOAJ collection (currently 4000 journals) is characterized by a very large number of publishers (2.000+), each publishing a very small number of journals on different platforms, in different formats and in more than 50 different languages. Many of these publishers are – with a number of exceptions – fragile when it comes to financial, technical and administrative sustainability.
At present DOAJ and KB carry out a pilot project aimed at setting up a workflow for processing open access journals listed with DOAJ. In the pilot a limited number of open access journals will be subject to long term preservation. These activities will be scaled up shortly and long term archiving of the journals listed in the DOAJ at KB’s e-Depot will become an integral part of the service provided by the DOAJ....
Comments
Preservation matters. Because it matters, and because doing it right can be difficult to arrange, new OA projects face a difficult decision: delay launch to ensure preservation from birth or launch first and let preservation follow on. One of the best features of the new DOAJ service is that it will follow on and catch up with OA journals already launched. New OA journals will know from birth that it's available. Another nice feature is that it will become part of the DOAJ array of services, simplifying life for the many small OA publishers. It's one more reason for institutions to join the DOAJ membership program.
Effective preservation reassures all the stakeholders, from authors and readers, to librarians, publishers, and P&T committees, that the valuable research in OA journals will last, that it will last in digital form (OA literature has always been compatible with the preservation of printouts), and that it will last in OA form.
This is not the first preservation program for digital journals, or even the first for OA journals. Two of the leading services are Portico and LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe). LOCKSS has an OA-specific offshoot called OpenLOCKSS.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
