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The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of one of the 16 research teams of the third phase of the InterPARES (International Research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems) project, that is, TEAM Canada. As with all other national teams, TEAM Canada aimed at building solutions for continuing accessibility of digital records in a variety of organizations.

All research teams, including TEAM Canada, utilized action research as their methodological framework.

The most significant finding of TEAM Canada is its discovery of the serious situation with the foundation of continuing accessibility of digital records, that is, the insufficiency of, or even the lack of, digital records management in organizations participating in the project.

The study described in the paper is unique for a number of reasons. First, it was guided by a theoretical framework featuring digital diplomatics, which concentrates the development of the InterPARES project of its 12‐year investigation. Second, it observed the principle of open inquiry, which encouraged researchers to identify research design and methods according to suitability, not to any particular epistemological perspective. Third, a comparatively large number of organizations were studied.

The purpose of this article is to describe the development of the French legal framework of digital evidence. The ongoing transformations of information in an electronic environment reconsidered fixity and stability of writing. The society needed to construct a new way for guaranteeing records’ authenticity and integrity, considering the necessity of conserving record’s probative value through time. That is the reason why France has published different legal texts since 2000 for establishing some rules.

The article is mainly focused on acts and decrees which constitute this legal framework. It resumes content of the main texts and highlights the great evolutions of French legal framework of digital evidence.

The article showcases two main approaches for guaranteeing records probative value in French Law: one is based on information systems security, and the other is based on electronic signature. Both approaches can be complementary. Their principles are not so different as far as the conclusions of InterPARES work.

This work makes a link between French Law studies and academic archival studies. It showcases the development of principles guaranteeing records’ authenticity and integrity with many quotations from French legal texts.

This paper aims to explore a new model of “record” that maps traditional attributes of a record onto a technical decomposition of digital records. It compares the core characteristics necessary to call a digital object a “record” in terms of diplomatics or “evidence” in terms of digital forensics. It then isolates three layers of abstraction: the conceptual, the logical and the physical. By identifying the essential elements of a record at each layer of abstraction, a diplomatics of digital records can be proposed.

Digital diplomatics, a research outcome of the International Research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems (InterPARES) project, gives archivists a methodology for analyzing the identity and integrity of digital records in electronic systems and thereby assessing their authenticity (Duranti and Preston, 2008; Duranti, 2005) and tracing their provenance.

Digital records consist of user-generated data (content), system-generated metadata identifying source and location, application-generated metadata managing the look and performance of the record (e.g., native file format), application-generated metadata describing the data (e.g., file system metadata OS), and user-generated metadata describing the data. Digital diplomatics, based on a foundation of traditional diplomatic principles, can help identify digital records through their metadata and determine what metadata needs to be captured, managed and preserved.

The value and originality of this paper is in the application of diplomatic principles to a deconstructed, technical view of digital records through functional metadata for assessing the identity and authenticity of digital records.

Optimising metadata implementation can significantly improve records management practice. This article aims to identify a number of important issues that should be considered in any implementation of recordkeeping metadata in order to optimise that implementation.

The research presented was part of a doctoral thesis “Purposeful data: the roles and purposes of recordkeeping metadata” which itself was part of a collaborative research project seeking to comprehensively specify and codify recordkeeping metadata. The purposes were identified via a research method known as warrant analysis.

Literary warrant identified that metadata fulfil seven different purposes: identifying all entities at all levels of aggregation; establishing connections between related entities; sustaining record structure, content and accessibility through time; administering record‐keeping business; documenting the history of recordkeeping events; facilitating discovery, understanding, retrieval and delivery; and documenting metadata attribution.

Recordkeeping systems should be designed with full awareness of the capacities of metadata and following a full assessment of the organisational needs that should be met by the system. Through better system design and well‐considered metadata implementation, records management operations in any environment can be significantly improved.

The paper establishes key roles of metadata and the importance of system design metadata implementation based on doctoral research.

In this increasingly digital world, archivists have had to reconsider early definitions and measures of authenticity in order to ensure their applicability to the process of preserving digital records. This paper sets out to explore the complexities involved in defining and preserving the authenticity of digital files.

The paper draws on literature from the field to present a comprehensive overview of traditional definitions of authenticity and highlight the shifting nature of those definitions in the digital age. The discussion begins with a look at traditional archival understandings of authenticity as they relate to physical objects. The paper goes on to examine these challenges and efforts and includes a look at the resource demands and technology tools currently used to evaluate digital authenticity. The paper conducted extensive research on the subject to compile source materials and draw conclusions.

This paper highlights the inherent challenge of establishing and maintaining pertinent criteria for authenticity when archivists are, for the most part, electing to reformat and effectively change digital records in order to ensure their long‐term preservation.

This paper includes practical implications for redefining, measuring, and preserving the authenticity of digital records.

This paper has social implications in that it asserts a need to question the well‐established understanding of what it means to be authentic.

The paper brings together a range of information and presents a comprehensive yet succinct view of the issues involved in defining and preserving digital authenticity, not otherwise found in the literature serving the archive community.

The short lifespan of digital signatures presents a challenge to the long-term preservation of digitally signed records. It can undermine attempts to presume, verify or assess their authenticity. This paper aims to investigate the challenges of the expiration of digital signatures in the context of digital archiving.

The paper identifies requirements for the long-term preservation of digitally signed records and compares them with the existing approaches. The characteristics, operational procedures and requirements of the technologies used for digital signatures are combined with the archival requirements to design a new model.

The paper proposes a new model of a blockchain-based system, which can be combined with any digital archive to assist the process of long-term preservation of digitally signed records.

The proposed model offers a new alternative to the current practice in the long-term preservation of digitally signed records, such as periodic resigning procedures or periodic wrapping of digitally signed records with archival timestamps.

The proposed TrustChain 2.0 model is based on previous research conducted as part of the InterPARES Trust project. It builds on TrustChain 1.0 by including digital signature certificate chain validity information in a blockchain thus avoiding the issues concerning records confidentiality and privacy information disclosure. The paper contributes not only to the development of archival science but also shows archival institutions on how to approach long-term preservation of digitally signed records.

The purpose of this study is to explore how the trustworthiness of digital records generated in an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system known as the government accounting and budgeting system (GABS) is maintained to support the audit process in the public sector of Botswana.

This qualitative study used modern archival diplomatics as a theoretical framework to examine the procedures for authenticating digital accounting records in GABS to support the audit process in Botswana. Data were collected through interviews and documentary reviews.

The study established that although GABS is not a record-keeping system, it generates digital records. In the absence of procedures, auditors rely on social and technical indicators (system application controls) to authenticate records.

The findings of the study are limited to the case study and cannot be generalised to other organisations.

The findings of the study can inform the necessary measures that can be taken to ensure that digital records generated in ERPs are maintained authentic to support financial auditing processes. In addition, the paper also presents differing approaches by records managers, auditors and information technology specialists to evaluate the authenticity of records in digital systems, thus contributing to the literature about professional allies and competitors to archivists and records managers.

This paper provides empirical evidence from an original study.

This paper, through examining the judgment on Case C-131/12 and the European Union (EU)’s Proposal for a General Data Protection Regulation, aims to demonstrate to the records management (RM) profession, the importance of being proactively involved in records creation identification and the challenges of performing sound retention analyses for newly emerging activities. It also serves as a call to the RM profession that more active participation in law-making processes is needed.

The research selects the current right to be forgotten phenomenon as an illuminating case and examines it with fundamental RM concepts and principles, in particular those relating to records creation and retention. The research process consists of three major parts: one, the establishment of an analytical framework based on RM theories; two, description of the selected case that is relevant to the analysis; and three, the application of the analytical framework to the described case.

Records retentions are much needed for the activities of data controllers that are now established by the most recent Judgment of the European Court of Justice pertinent to the right to be forgotten and the proposed General Data Protection Regulation. The determination of retention periods for such activities requires an RM framework that synthesizes the identification of digital records and the various types of value associated with the different usages of records. It is also observed that the data protection legal framework does not address RM considerations, or at least, not in any explicit, easily recognizable manners.

Records retentions are much needed for the activities of data controllers and/or processors that are now required by the Judgment of the European Court of Justice and the proposed EU General Data Protection Regulation, yet the legal framework does not offer any assistance in establishing retentions. It is also observed that the data protection legal framework fully acknowledges the importance of records but fails to address RM considerations – at least, not in any explicit, easily recognizable manners.

The findings are expected to be instructive to data controllers and/or processors, in particular with respect to records creation identification and records retention establishment in their organizations. It is also expected that the observations generated during the analysis process could shed light on the development of the RM profession.

The right to be forgotten in the digital world has newly acquired complications, and it has the potential to affect not just the privacy right but also the rights considered conflicting to it, such as the rights of freedom of press and freedom of expression/speech. Efficient and effective RM programs should be able to assist their parent organizations in dealing with this complicated situation through creating and managing records that support the compliance of regulatory requirements on the one hand and the balancing of competing rights on the other hand.

The research appears to be the first of its kind according to the literature search conducted within the accessibility scope of the researcher.