Pennsieve Platform Preservation Commitment Statement

Statement of Compliance

The Pennsieve platform explicitly commits to the active preservation of and continued access to the digital objects entrusted to repositories hosted on the platform. This commitment applies uniformly across all repositories supported by Pennsieve and is backed by an institutional guarantee from the University of Pennsylvania ensuring a minimum of ten years of data availability.

Platform Overview

Pennsieve operates as a multi-tenant platform, hosting multiple repositories that serve distinct research domains and communities. While each repository may have specific scope, collection policies, and access requirements tailored to its user community, all repositories benefit from a shared infrastructure and a unified commitment to digital preservation and access.

Mission Statement

The mission of the Pennsieve platform is to provide robust, standards-based infrastructure for the acquisition, curation, preservation, and long-term access to digital research data and associated materials. We ensure that all deposited materials—regardless of the specific repository in which they reside—are maintained in appropriate technical environments, managed according to established preservation standards, and made accessible to authorized users for the duration of their retention periods.

Platform-Wide Preservation Guarantee

Our preservation commitment extends uniformly to all repositories hosted on the Pennsieve platform. This means that every repository, regardless of its domain focus or user community, operates under the same core preservation principles and infrastructure standards. Individual repositories may define domain-specific policies for collection scope, access controls, and retention periods, but the underlying commitment to active curation and preservation remains consistent across the platform.

Institutional Commitment

The University of Pennsylvania has issued an official letter guaranteeing a minimum of ten years of data availability for materials deposited in repositories hosted on the Pennsieve platform. This institutional commitment ensures long-term preservation and access independent of individual project funding cycles, providing depositors and users with confidence that their data will remain accessible and actively maintained.

Governance Structure

Governance of the Pennsieve platform operates at two levels:

Platform Level: The Pennsieve platform maintains consistent technical infrastructure, preservation standards, and core operational policies that apply across all hosted repositories.

Repository Level: Individual repositories are governed through their respective NIH-funded research projects. Each project maintains responsibility for domain-specific policies, collection development, access management, and community engagement within the framework provided by the platform's preservation commitments.

This governance model ensures that repositories benefit from both the stability of centralized platform infrastructure and the domain expertise of their respective research communities.

Funder Mandate

All repositories hosted on the Pennsieve platform are funded through the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation (NSF), and or Department of Defense (DoD). This funding structure aligns with NIH data sharing and preservation requirements, ensuring that repositories operate in compliance with federal research data management mandates.

Evidence References

The following documentation provides evidence of our preservation commitment and its formal approval:

• Mission Statement: Mission and Vision statement
• Institutional Guarantee: Official letter from the University of Pennsylvania guaranteeing ten years of data availability University of Pennsylvania - Data Commitment
• Platform Preservation Policy: Pennsieve Technology Stack
• NIH Funding Documentation: Pennsieve Funding Sources
• Repository-Specific Governance: Repository specific governance can be found on the specific portals associated with the funded projects. (e.g. Sparc.Science, and Epilepsy.Science)

Commitment to Depositors and Users

We communicate our preservation responsibilities transparently to all stakeholders across every repository hosted on the platform. Depositors are informed of our curation and preservation commitments through repository-specific deposit agreements, which specify retention periods, access conditions, and the platform's obligations. The institutional guarantee from the University of Pennsylvania provides additional assurance that data will remain available for a minimum of ten years.