Tier 2 coordinated preservation works but does not extend to most research

The most sophisticated coordinated preservation systems on Earth — INSDC for nucleotide sequences, wwPDB for macromolecular structures, CLOCKSS for journals, the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid for particle physics, NOAA NCEI for environmental data, and the IVOA partnership for astronomical archives — operate at Tier 2 (M-0001). They have survived multi-decade horizons, generated extraordinary returns on the investments that sustain them, and absorbed events including hurricanes, floods, and decades of operational pressure without permanent loss.

The architectural ceiling is lower than the institutional reputation suggests. INSDC holds three copies. wwPDB holds four. NOAA NCEI holds four — all within a single agency. The astronomical consortium holds three. Three or four independently-maintained copies is the demonstrated state of the art in coordinated scientific preservation. Each system is sustained by one or two funding streams, and the organizations governing those copies are not independent failure domains: a single budget decision can affect every NOAA storage site simultaneously because all four report to the same agency.

Tier 2 covers a narrow slice of research. Cross-disciplinary work, small-team studies, underfunded projects, and data types without a community standard have no Tier 2 infrastructure at all. The 73-93% baseline (C-0002) is precisely the slice Tier 2 does not reach. Coverage extension to the remainder is bounded by the economics of consortium operation — Tier 2 fees are priced for well-funded disciplinary consortia, which is why coverage has accumulated where it has and not where it hasn't.

This claim does not argue that Tier 2 is bad. It argues that Tier 2's success defines the ceiling that Tier 3 has to extend.