Archiving & Digital Preservation

Preservation Commitment and Scope

Digital archiving and preservation form part of the journal's responsibility to safeguard the scholarly publication record. The scope of this policy includes materials available within the journal system, including:

• published articles and their full-text files;
• published issues;
• bibliographic metadata and publication information associated with articles;
• publication files and supporting materials that form part of the publication record, where available within the journal system; and
• other information necessary to maintain the identity, traceability, and context of scholarly publications.

Preservation is intended to ensure that the publication record does not depend solely on the continued availability of a single web page or system interface, but can be maintained as part of the journal's scholarly record.

Operational Archiving, Backup, and Recovery

Publication content and metadata are managed through the journal's electronic publishing system. The journal maintains routine backups and organized copies of editorial and publication files to support recovery and continuity of the scholarly record.

Operational backup and long-term preservation serve different functions. Backup is primarily intended to support the recovery of systems and data in the event of loss, damage, technical errors, or operational disruption. Long-term digital preservation is directed toward maintaining the scholarly record beyond the requirements of routine system recovery.

Backup copies support recovery from disruption. Long-term preservation remains a continuing responsibility for maintaining the accessibility and integrity of the publication record.

Long-Term Preservation and Continuity of Access

The journal is committed to maintaining access to published content for as long as possible through the continuing management and maintenance of its publication record. In the event of system migration, platform changes, infrastructure changes, or technical disruptions affecting the journal website, priority is given to the recovery and transfer of publication data while preserving the relationships among articles, metadata, issues, and publication identifiers.

The journal's digital preservation strategy may be further developed in response to its needs, technological developments, and the availability of preservation services that meet appropriate technical and institutional requirements. Any use of an external preservation service will be stated as part of the journal's policy only after the mechanism has been implemented and its preservation status can be verified.

This approach is intended to ensure that information provided to readers, authors, indexing services, and evaluation bodies accurately reflects the preservation practices actually implemented by the journal.

Relationship with Self-Archiving

Digital preservation undertaken or managed by the journal is distinct from self-archiving by authors. Digital preservation focuses on maintaining the continuity of the publication record that forms part of the journal system and the journal's responsibilities, whereas self-archiving concerns the rights and conditions under which authors may deposit or disseminate particular versions of their manuscripts through institutional repositories, subject repositories, personal websites, or other permitted platforms.

Provisions concerning the manuscript versions that may be archived, permitted deposit locations, attribution, and other self-archiving requirements are addressed separately in Repository & Self-Archiving Policy.