Decision Guide: Preservation Resources and Destinations:#

Depending on who you are and the skills you have, you may decide to preserve source code locally, through an organization like Software Heritage, or through your institution’s digital preservation system. There are pros and cons to each of these options:

Local Preservation

Best for: small-scale, personal projects, sensitive code

• Pros:
  • Complete autonomy and control over preservation decisions
  • No dependence on external platforms
  • Define your own best practices and metadata standards
  • Flexibility in what ancillary materials to include
  • Full privacy control over the access and distribution
• Cons:
  • Full responsibility for long-term storage and maintenance
  • Not bound to terms and services of any organization, or online platform, or copyright law
  • Have to pay for your own storage infrastructure

Software Heritage

Best for: contributions to software history, ensuring long-term survival

• Pros:
  • Institutionally backed with sustainable funding
  • Rigorous archival standards
  • Centralized access for researchers and developers
  • Contextualized within broader software ecosystem
  • With permanent identifiers (SWHIDs) for references
• Cons:
  • Subject to European copyright law
  • Cannot customize metadata fields
  • All decisions are subject to approval
  • Public access by default

Institutional Route

Best for: research, organizational records

• Pros:
  • Institutional resources and stability
  • Support from digital preservationists and colleagues
  • Integration with institutional repositories
  • Alignment with institutional preservation policies
  • Credibility through institutional affiliation
• Cons:
  • Need to work within existing Digital Asset Management System (DAMS)
  • Institutional DAMS may not be suitable for archiving software
  • Subject to institutional policies and priorities
  • Processing timelines may be slower
  • Limited to institution’s preservation capacity