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Archiving

Thoth Plus offers comprehensive archiving solutions to ensure the long-term preservation of scholarly publications. Small and scholar-led presses, constituting much of the "long tail" of publishers, often lack an active preservation policy, jeopardizing their valuable contributions to the scholarly record. Recent studies highlight concerns over the archiving and preservation status of Open Access books, revealing risks associated with volatile cloud storage and the absence of preservation measures altogether (Laakso, 2023).

While large-scale publishers typically have agreements with digital preservation archives like CLOCKSS and Portico, small presses face challenges due to limited financial resources, institutional support, technical expertise, and staff resources (cf. Barnes et al., 2022). Similar concerns extend to the long tail of open access journal publishers, prompting initiatives such as Project JASPER to address preservation gaps for OA journals lacking current preservation measures.

Internet Archive

The Internet Archive, a trusted digital library offering free universal access to knowledge, is one of the key partners in Thoth Plus's archiving solutions. Through Thoth Plus, publishers can seamlessly archive their publications with the Internet Archive, ensuring their content remains accessible for generations to come. To find out which books have already been stored on the Internet Archive through Thoth, see the Thoth Archiving Network collection on Internet Archive.

Thoth Open Archiving Network

The Thoth Open Archiving Network (TOAN) serves as a vital resource for small and scholar-led book publishers seeking to preserve their publications for the long-term.

TOAN offers publishers the option of automatically archiving their publications in multiple repository locations, thereby filling a significant gap in preservation infrastructure. This initiative provides an essential safeguard against the risk of complete loss of their catalogue, supporting the long-term accessibility and preservation of scholarly works.

TOAN is a community initiative first developed under the remit of the Community-Led Open Infrastructures for Monographs (COPIM) project (2019-23), which is now being continued in the successor project of Open Book Futures (2023-26).

The Thoth Open Archiving Network MVA (minimum viable archiving approach) currently comprises the following repositories:

With TOAN, we are continually working to improve and extend our processes and workflows. This will include:

  • Extension of reach towards more generalist, and potentially institutional, repositories
  • Strengthening integrity and authenticity across workflows
  • Working proactively to meet funder mandates for sustainability / preservation