e-Journal archiving
The shift towards electronic publication of scholarly journals affords advantages to both publishers and consumers. The improvement in accessibility is complemented by more sophisticated ways of searching content and a recent British Library commissioned study concluded that by 2016, half of all serial publications will be published 'online-only' by 2016. What is problematic for the academic community, however, is the challenge of ensuring that information that is served remotely and online is accessible for the long-term, and will remain available for teaching and research purposes for as long as it is deemed useful or interesting.
JISC is engaged with this issue on a number of different levels: via the Digital Preservation Programme; through its Scholarly Communications work; and through the involvement of JISC collections and their relationships with content providers and consumers. A number of service providers have entered the field offering e-journal archiving solutions and it is clear that much work is still required to gain a clear understanding of how these different solutions either replicate or complement each other, and how they exist in relation to publishers and licensing arrangements.
Current and past JISC-funded activities
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