Archive policy
The IUCr will act as an archive for all electronic information published by the IUCr. The content of the archive will include all IUCr primary publications in its Crystallography Online Service and the corresponding supplementary publications material. Original information content will never be altered, but may be annotated or supplemented by clearly noted errata, references and other developments that occur subsequent to original publication.
For efficient and secure operation of the online service, the IUCr undertakes to produce dissemination replicates and security replicates of the archive of its electronic publications. Dissemination replicates are used for active delivery to consumers whereas security replicates will not be used for active delivery at any time. The IUCr is responsible for the periodic refreshment of these replicates. At least one complete security replicate will be maintained at a site separate and distant from the IUCr editorial offices in Chester, England. Details of current archiving arrangements for IUCr journals are available here.
The IUCr will ensure access to the archive of its electronic publications and for this service a consumer will be required to pay a subscription or by other means. If publication of a journal is terminated, the IUCr will continue to preserve the journal content for the long term and will charge an appropriate access fee to consumers. In the case that the IUCr should decide to discontinue its activity as a publisher, the IUCr will make its best effort to make arrangements to transmit the electronic publication archive for long-term preservation to a trusted third party acceptable to the user community.
For the purposes of long-term preservation, the IUCr will review available technologies at appropriate intervals and undertake digital migration of the content and associated information. The initial content information will be in the predominant current standard (e.g., SGML-based) with suitable current standard-based storage formats for figures, page images, and other information forms as they develop. Digital migration to new formats will be undertaken when current formats are in danger of becoming obsolete or unsupportable, or when new formats provide substantial improvements in features with no loss of content.
The IUCr is responsible for the long-term preservation of journal articles and other materials stored within its archive. The IUCr declines all responsibility for the long-term preservation, replication, refreshment and repackaging of any electronic information disseminated to a consumer from the archive. In particular, the IUCr has no responsibility for the maintenance of electronic collections of page images and for the maintenance of electronic offprints distributed to authors. New copies of these materials in the then-current technology may be purchased from the IUCr at the current rates.