JISC

The long-term archiving of scholarly publications is a key concern of many academic authors and customers of STM publishers. Subscribers to e-journals, particularly academic libraries whose core business depends on being able to cite and ensure future access to published works, are also deeply concerned with ensuring provision for continuing access to licensed publications. The transition from purchasing print journals, which are then owned by libraries, to licensing access to content controlled by publishers, requires planning and collaboration to provide an assurance of continued access at an affordable price.

In terms of licensed e-journals, the JISC National Electronic Site Licensing Initiative (NESLI) model licence attempts to address the requirements of libraries by the incorporation of three clauses relating to continued access following termination of the licence. After several years in operation, it is now timely to explore the practical effect of these licensing clauses. 

The Cedars project funded by JISC established a number of technical approaches which can be applied to long-term preservation of electronic publications. The project evaluation highlighted the need for further appraisal of service and business models. 

JISC has therefore funded a one-year follow-on consultancy by Maggie Jones to evaluate previous licences; explore with publishers and other stakeholders archiving and access provisions; and evaluate future options for archiving of licensed e-journals and access arrangements. 

Interim deliverables from the study are available from the foot of this page. A related  one-day workshop was held on 17 February 2003; details of speakers, powerpoint presentations, breakout group reports and a summary of the day are available from the workshop web page.