Managing Risks in the Preservation of Research Data with Preservation Networks

Network modelling provides a framework for the systematic analysis of needs and options for preservation. A number of general strategies can be identified, characterised and applied to many situations; these strategies may be combined to produce robust preservation solutions tailored to the needs of the community and responsive to their environment. This paper provides an overview of this approach. We describe the components of a Preservation Network Model and go on to show how it may be used to plan preservation actions according to the requirements of the particular situation using illustrative examples from scientific archives