Research produced by African scholars could remain accessible for generations after Pan Atlantic University Press signed a strategic partnership with CLOCKSS to digitally preserve its Journal of Creative Media.
The agreement will place all published content from the peer reviewed journal in the CLOCKSS global digital preservation network, helping protect the research from technological failures and other problems that could make academic work disappear from the internet.
For a student researching Nigerian journalism years from now, or a scholar examining how Africa’s creative industries have changed, the value is simple: important research should still be there when they need it. Brandspur Brand News reports that the partnership is designed to give African scholarship a secure long term digital home.
CLOCKSS is an independent, not for profit organisation that preserves scholarly content through a network of archives distributed across different locations. It is supported by academic publishers and research libraries worldwide.
The system uses LOCKSS technology to create multiple preserved copies of academic material. If the original digital content becomes unavailable, CLOCKSS can make the preserved material accessible under an open licence.
That protection is particularly relevant to research from Africa’s media and creative industries, where scholars document subjects ranging from journalism and broadcasting to film, advertising, music and the performing arts.
A spokesperson for PAU Press said the partnership reflects Pan Atlantic University’s commitment to international standards in scholarly publishing and the preservation of African knowledge.
The Journal of Creative Media is published twice a year by Pan Atlantic University Press and managed by the Centre for Media and Communication Research in the university’s School of Media and Communication.
Its work covers a wide stretch of the creative sector. The journal publishes research on journalism, broadcasting, film, advertising, public relations, music, performing arts and literary studies, as well as other areas of the creative industries.
That means its archives can serve more than academics. Researchers, students, media professionals and policymakers can draw on published studies to understand the ideas, debates and changes shaping Africa’s creative landscape.
Digital publishing has made academic research easier to share, but it has also introduced a different problem. Online material can become difficult to retrieve when websites close, technologies change or digital platforms fail.
A research paper that took months or years to produce can therefore become inaccessible if there is no reliable preservation system behind it.
The CLOCKSS agreement is intended to guard against that possibility by placing the Journal of Creative Media’s published work within a wider preservation network.
It also strengthens the journal’s connection to the international scholarly community, giving research produced through the publication greater resilience and potentially making it easier for researchers around the world to access over the long term.
For PAU Press, the partnership is therefore about more than storing digital files. It is about ensuring that African scholarship does not become lost simply because the technology used to publish it has changed.
And for future researchers, that could make a meaningful difference. The questions being studied today may become the foundation for understanding Africa’s media and creative industries tomorrow.
