On March 13, 2025, Persée became the 20th institution to join the Keepers Registry, a service coordinated by the International ISSN Center dedicated to the traceability and visibility of the long-term archiving of serial publications. This initiative fully aligns with Persée’s mission to disseminate, enhance, and preserve the Francophone scientific heritage.
An international system serving long-term archiving
The Keepers Registry centralizes information related to the long-term archiving of serial publications. It relies on contributions from several partner agencies such as Portico, CLOCKSS, the British Library, the Library of Congress, and the National Library of France. These organizations transmit their archiving data to the International ISSN Center, which then associates this data with the ISSN identifiers of the relevant publications in its portal. The objective is to guarantee the traceability of long-term archiving and to inform about the titles actually preserved.
This system is managed by the International ISSN Center, also known as the International Center for the Registration of Serial Publications (CIEPS), an intergovernmental organization under the auspices of UNESCO. Leading a network of 95 national centers, it plays a central role in the standardization, identification, and dissemination of serial publications through the assignment of ISSN identifiers, a fundamental element of documentary interoperability.
Collaboration to enhance the visibility of Francophone scientific publishing
The collaboration between Persée and the International ISSN Center reflects a shared commitment to “better disseminate information concerning the long-term preservation of Francophone scientific content,” as stated by Gaëlle Béquet, director of CIEPS.
Since 2008, the collections available on the persee.fr portal have been subject to long-term archiving by CINES (National Computing Center for Higher Education). By joining the Keepers Registry, Persée gives international visibility to this mission: archiving becomes identifiable, traceable, and interoperable on a global scale, thus facilitating its discovery by libraries, researchers, and scientific publishing stakeholders.
A renewed commitment to accessibility and conservation of scientific heritage
Since its creation in 2003, Persée has focused on making an increasingly rich corpus of full-text scientific publications accessible while ensuring their long-term preservation.
As Gabrielle Richard, director of Persée, emphasizes:
“Indexing, openness, and preservation are the challenges of scientific publishing and the creation of digital collections. Joining the 19 institutions contributing to the Keepers Registry is, for Persée today, an opportunity to reaffirm the importance of archiving within its missions.”
Persée’s integration into the Keepers Registry thus demonstrates a strong commitment to the long-term preservation of scientific production, beyond immediate access issues. It also highlights the expertise developed by Persée in the processing and conservation of digital corpora, embedding it within an internationally recognized network.
