The continuous digital preservation of our published content remains a top priority for Taylor & Francis. Dark archives, backup databases of digitally published content hosted by a third party, are part of an initiative to support digital content preservation. These archives aim to guarantee ongoing accessibility of content for researchers, scholars, librarians, and students, regardless of circumstances.

Taylor & Francis is a member of the two major not-for-profit dark archive services: Portico and CLOCKSS. We are proud to have been a pilot participant in the creation of CLOCKSS.

How it Works

Dark archives act as a safeguard for content, if it ever becomes unavailable from its original source. Upon publication, Taylor & Francis content is disseminated to both CLOCKSS and Portico, where these dark archives store and preserve the digital content. As of 2023, Portico now maintains compete archives of Taylor & Francis’ digital products, including Europa World, Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and Explore our online resources for librarians.

Public release of content from the archive is determined by specific conditions known as “trigger events”. Portico lists these as:

  • Cessation of a publisher’s operations
  • Discontinuation of a title by a publisher
  • Back issues no longer offered by a publisher
  • Catastrophic and sustained failure of a publisher’s delivery platform for longer than 90 days

Sustained access following a “trigger event” provides partners, students, scholars, libraries, and researchers with the assurance that the material and content they have diligently worked on, engaged with, and value, will endure regardless of these circumstances. These archives exist in addition to convention archiving activities related to the UK’s Legal Deposit Libraries Act of 2003, a significant preservation principle which ensures all published content is securely deposited in the British Library, and shared amongst users of the Bodleian, the National libraries of Scotland and Wales, Cambridge University Library and Trinity College Dublin Library.