A recent study published in the Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication suggests that digital paper preservation processes are failing to keep pace with the growth of research output. The study, authored by Martin Paul Eve (University of London), found that out of a selected seven million articles with digital object identifiers (DOIs), approximately two million (28%) did not appear in a major digital archive. “Everybody thinks of the immediate gains they might get from having a paper out somewhere, but we really should be thinking about the long-term sustainability of the research ecosystem,” Eve told Nature. The study concludes that digital preservation measures can be improved by strengthening requirements at DOI registration agencies and by raising awareness among publishers and researchers.
