The preservation of content is a vital part of the scholarly communications infrastructure. While libraries traditionally have had robust processes for preserving print archives, online content is more of a challenge.

Enter the dark archive. No, it’s not a supervillain’s lair: dark archive is a term that refers to a backup database of digitally-published content, hosted by a third party.

Dark archives are often cross-publisher, community-led initiatives that support digital content preservation. Digital preservation services work to ensure that content remains accessible and usable for researchers, scholars, and students in the future – in all circumstances.

How it works

Dark archives serve as a backup for content in case it ceases to be available from the original source. This is called a trigger event. Trigger events may include:

• Cessation of a publisher’s operations
• Discontinuation of a title by a publisher who does not offer ongoing access
• Back issues no longer offered by a publisher
• Catastrophic and sustained failure of a publisher’s delivery platform for more than 90 days

Continued access in response to a trigger event gives reassurance to library customers of the long-term availability of the content they invest in, and to publishing partners of the longevity of their output.

We deliver content to digital preservation partners upon publication on Wiley Online Library.

Digital preservation partners

Wiley works with two major digital preservation initiatives in the industry.

CLOCKSS is a not-for-profit joint venture between the world’s leading academic publishers and research libraries. Its mission is to build a sustainable, geographically distributed dark archive to ensure the long-term survival of web-based scholarly publications. Once content is triggered, it is available for free. CLOCKSS uniquely assigns this abandoned and orphaned content a Creative Commons license to ensure it remains available forever. Wiley is a founding member and participant in the CLOCKSS initiative for online journals, with online books and reference works soon to follow.

Portico is a community supported dark archive committed to ensuring that scholarly content published in electronic form remains accessible for the long term. It has been working with publishers since 2005 and is certified as a trustworthy digital repository by the Center for Research Libraries. Portico is currently part of the non-profit organization ITHAKA. Wiley participates in the Portico initiative for online journals, books, Cochrane content, and Wiley Digital Archives. Wiley also serves on its advisory committee.

This article is part of the series Research Distribution: Connecting Research to Readers.