Preservation

JSTOR was founded to be a shared digital archive serving the scholarly community. We understand the value of the scholarship and other material in the archives and that the future accessibility of this content is essential. Libraries around the world rely on us and contribute Archive Capital Fees to JSTOR for preservation activities.

We actively pursue long-term preservation in several ways:

Preserving the original print materials

We work with institutions knowledgeable in the preservation of paper to store multiple copies of the original print publications underlying the archives so that they are available for re-digitization as well as other unanticipated needs. The California Digital Library and Harvard Depository act as paper repositories for JSTOR.

For print and other materials included in JSTOR from rare and special or private collections, originals are preserved by the owning libraries, societies, museums, or other organizations and individuals. This includes content in our Additional Collections.

Maintaining the digital files

To protect against loss, we have established redundant data centers housing CD-ROM and tape backups. Additionally, the scanned image files are maintained in the TIFF G4 format which is currently considered to be the archival standard, and which can be readily converted to newer formats as they are developed in the future.

Electronic editions of journals in JSTOR are also preserved by Portico, an archiving service initiated by JSTOR.

Investing in technological and format upgrades

We actively upgrade the archive to keep pace with technology and format advances. For example, we have migrated the metadata from a proprietary format to a more flexible XML format and applied the image compositing technology first used in image-intensive art and art history journals to the entire archive to more accurately preserve the look and feel of the original paper journals. We have also invested in a new code base for the JSTOR delivery system.

Third-party stewardship planning

The archives must continue to be preserved in the extremely unlikely event that JSTOR should cease operations. In this case, funds may be transferred to a third-party steward. Third-party digital repositories would be selected for their high technical standards, the ability to foster cooperation among stakeholders while maintaining knowledge of the legal environment, and scrupulous digital rights management. Finally, selected repositories would have to demonstrate a strong commitment to preservation, as well as financial stability.