Persistence of public repositories
GitHub Enterprise Cloud intends to keep your public repositories available unless you remove them. In some cases, we may make public content unavailable, for example if:
- We receive a DMCA Takedown Notice for content in a repository.
- We determine that a repository's content violates our Community Guidelines or Terms of Service.
Academics and researchers can reference this information in data management plans.
About the GitHub Archive Program
By default, all public repositories are included in the GitHub Archive Program, a partnership between GitHub and organizations such as Software Heritage Foundation and Internet Archive to ensure the long-term preservation of the world's open source software.
The GitHub Archive Program enables third-party partners to archive public repositories using the public API. These partners archive different types of data at varying frequencies and make the data available to the public. The GitHub Archive Program also protects the data on an ongoing basis by storing multiple copies across various data formats and locations. For example, GitHub stores repositories in the Arctic Code Vault, a very-long-term archive intended to last at least 1,000 years. For more information, see GitHub Archive Program.
Responsible use of archives includes respecting users' privacy. For more information, see GitHub General Privacy Statement.
You can opt out of the GitHub Archive Program for your repository. For more information, see Opting into or out of the GitHub Archive Program for your public repository.
Adding an open source license to increase archivability
Libraries and researchers may require legal protections to create archives of publicly available content. If you want third parties to consider your work on GitHub Enterprise Cloud for archiving, you can add an open source license to your projects. An open source license gives contributors explicit permissions to copy and distribute the material in your repositories.