Archiving & Digital Preservation Policy

Preservation activities are intended to reduce the risk that scholarly content becomes unavailable because of:

• server failure;
• software failure;
• database corruption;
• cybersecurity incidents;
• accidental deletion;
• hosting interruption;
• domain or infrastructure changes;
• publisher restructuring; or
• other technical or organisational disruption.

This policy applies principally to:

• published article files;
• article landing pages;
• DOI and bibliographic metadata;
• supplementary files;
• corrections;
• Expressions of Concern;
• retractions and other post-publication notices;
• issue and volume metadata; and
• essential records required to maintain the integrity of the scholarly record.

Preservation should support continuing access to:

• article titles;
• author information;
• abstracts;
• publication dates;
• issue and volume information;
• DOIs;
• full-text files;
• licensing information;
• correction and retraction status;
• supplementary materials; and
• other essential bibliographic metadata.

A preservation strategy that retains a PDF but loses the article's identity, DOI, citation, or correction status is incomplete.

The Version of Record should not ordinarily be silently overwritten where a material change is required after publication.

Material post-publication changes should instead be documented through an appropriate mechanism, such as:

• correction;
• addendum;
• Expression of Concern;
• retraction; or
• exceptional removal notice.

Preservation arrangements should maintain the relationship between the original publication and its subsequent status notices.

Backup coverage should include, where technically applicable:

• OJS application data;
• journal database content;
• uploaded article files;
• supplementary materials;
• public files;
• configuration information;
• theme and customisation files;
• publication metadata;
• journal policies and static pages; and
• other information required for restoration of journal operations.

Backups should be stored in a manner that reduces the risk that a single server or security incident destroys both the active journal and every available backup.

Appropriate arrangements may include:

• hosting-provider backups;
• independent off-server copies;
• external storage;
• controlled administrative exports;
• database dumps;
• file-system archives; or
• other secure recovery copies.

Backup files should be protected from unauthorised public access, particularly where they contain confidential submission, reviewer, or account information.

Recovery procedures may involve:

• isolating a compromised environment;
• preserving relevant forensic or diagnostic records;
• deploying a verified clean application baseline;
• restoring validated database content;
• restoring legitimate publication files;
• resetting credentials;
• reviewing permissions and access controls;
• validating article and DOI links;
• checking metadata integrity; and
• confirming normal operation before reopening affected services.

Restoration should prioritise integrity rather than simply returning an affected server to its previous state as quickly as possible.

JPMHR seeks to maintain:

• stable DOI registration;
• accurate DOI target URLs;
• article titles;
• author metadata;
• publication dates;
• volume and issue information;
• licensing metadata;
• abstracts where applicable;
• article status information; and
• links between publications and correction or retraction notices.

Where the journal's website infrastructure or article URLs change, DOI target information should be updated so that the persistent identifier continues to resolve to the appropriate publication page.

Maintaining established URLs supports:

• citation integrity;
• indexing continuity;
• DOAJ and discovery-service records;
• search-engine indexing;
• institutional links;
• reference-manager records; and
• reader access to longstanding policy and article pages.

Where a URL must change, a permanent redirect should be considered where technically appropriate and where the prior resource has a clear successor.

Authors may archive eligible manuscript versions in:

• institutional repositories;
• subject repositories;
• funder repositories;
• national repositories;
• personal academic webpages; or
• other lawful scholarly platforms.

Once the formal publication exists, repository records should, where practical, include the article citation and DOI or permanent JPMHR URL.

A preservation service will be identified publicly only when JPMHR can reasonably verify that the journal is actually participating in or depositing content through that service.

The following do not, by themselves, establish participation:

• installation of a preservation plugin;
• activation of a plugin setting;
• submission of an application;
• technical compatibility with a network;
• intention to participate; or
• availability of the service to OJS journals generally.

The journal should verify acceptance, deposit status, or another reliable indicator of operational participation before making a named preservation claim.

JPMHR will not state that its content is preserved through the PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN) unless current journal participation and deposit status have been verified.

If participation is later confirmed, this section may be updated to identify:

• the preservation service;
• the operational status;
• the scope of preserved content; and
• an appropriate verification source where available.

This distributed presence can support discovery and continuity, but it should not be confused with a formal preservation guarantee.

Examples may include:

• DOI metadata;
• DOAJ records;
• institutional repositories;
• author self-archiving;
• library catalogues;
• scholarly indexing systems;
• repository harvesting; and
• other lawful scholarly copies.

JPMHR therefore distinguishes between discovery/indexing and formal digital preservation.

Inclusion in an indexing or discovery service may improve discoverability and metadata availability, but does not necessarily constitute independent preservation of the full journal content.

JPMHR seeks to maintain:

• the original article DOI;
• the article landing page;
• the formal correction or retraction notice;
• cross-links between article and notice;
• updated article-status information; and
• appropriate metadata reflecting the change.

Retraction normally preserves the bibliographic record rather than deleting all evidence that the article existed.

Relevant scenarios may include:

• change of hosting provider;
• migration to a new OJS installation;
• change of domain infrastructure;
• publisher restructuring;
• journal transfer;
• temporary suspension of publication; or
• cessation of active journal operations.

In any such event, reasonable efforts should be made to preserve access to already published scholarly content and maintain DOI and bibliographic continuity.

Where journal publication ceases, the publisher should make reasonable efforts to:

• maintain access to published articles;
• preserve DOI resolution;
• retain article metadata;
• maintain correction and retraction notices;
• preserve licensing information;
• support repository availability; and
• maintain or transfer preservation arrangements where reasonably possible.

Appropriate controls may include:

• restricted backup access;
• secure administrative credentials;
• separation of live and recovery environments;
• file and database integrity checks;
• controlled restoration procedures;
• software patching;
• malware and compromise assessment;
• logging where appropriate; and
• periodic verification that recovery data remain usable.

A backup that reproduces compromised application code without validation is not, by itself, a safe recovery strategy.

Review may include checking:

• whether backups are being created;
• whether recovery copies are usable;
• whether article files are complete;
• whether DOI links resolve correctly;
• whether preservation deposits are succeeding where applicable;
• whether journal metadata remain accurate;
• whether correction and retraction notices remain linked; and
• whether public preservation statements remain factually correct.

A preservation claim should be revised promptly if the underlying service is discontinued, suspended, or no longer operational for the journal.