Submission Information Package (SIP)
A Submission Information Package (SIP) is the bundle of content and metadata that a producer delivers to a digital archive, packaged so the archive can validate it and begin preparing it for long-term preservation.
Submission Information Package (SIP) is one of the three information packages defined by the OAIS reference model, alongside the Archival Information Package (AIP) and Dissemination Information Package (DIP). A SIP is what a producer hands over at the front door of a digital repository: the records or data objects together with the descriptive, structural, and preservation metadata the archive needs to understand and ingest them. During ingest, the archive validates the SIP—checking fixity, completeness, and format—then transforms it into one or more AIPs for durable storage.
The SIP matters in recordkeeping because it formalizes the transfer of custody and establishes provenance at the moment of accession, capturing context that would otherwise be lost. For example, when an agency transfers a closed case file to a preservation repository, the SIP carries not just the documents but checksums, file manifests, and origin metadata. Because federal electronic-records guidance has shifted away from the older DoD 5015.2 endorsement (revoked in 2022) toward the Universal ERM Requirements and FERMI, package-based transfer concepts like the SIP are increasingly central to compliant ingest.