Preservation process assessments assist records creators and preservers in understanding the complex regime of internal and external factors that affect the long-term care of the records under their care, while at the same time highlighting problem areas. Because of the distributed nature of digital preservation, to be effective, these assessments need to take into account issues related to the entire chain of custody, from creation through preservation, so that the authenticity of the records is maintained throughout. Doing so will require that creators and preservers develop new strategies for instituting and sustaining more active and integrated records management collaborations supported by a comprehensive and harmonized intellectual framework of policies, procedures, practices, and standards.The purpose of this paper is twofold: (1) to introduce to professional practitioners involved in digital preservation activities, especially practitioners outside the archival community, the concept of authenticity as it has been developed during the past eight years of intensive research by the InterPARES (International Research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems) Project, and (2) to examine how the findings of this research, particularly the InterPARES 2 Framework of Principles, and the intellectual framework of model policies, principles and standards it supports, can help encourage and support more comprehensive and integrated preservation process assessments aimed at improving the ability of creators and preservers to establish and maintain the authenticity of the digital records, and other digital content objects, under their care.