Digital Preservation and Archiving Policy

Multidisciplinary Journals (MJ)  |  e-ISSN 3047-8499

1. Purpose and Scope

Digital preservation is the managed set of technical and organisational measures used to keep digital scholarly content authentic, complete, readable, retrievable, and usable over time. The preservation scope includes:

• published article files and their versions of record;
• issue tables of contents, covers, front matter, and publication dates;
• article metadata, including title, authorship, affiliation, abstract, keywords, references, DOI, dates, and licensing information;
• published supplementary files, research instruments, or data files hosted by the journal;
• corrections, errata, expressions of concern, retraction notices, and links connecting those notices to the affected article; and
• the technical information reasonably necessary to reconstruct or migrate the published journal record.

Confidential submissions, reviewer identities, review reports, editorial correspondence, personal data, and internal administrative records are retained under applicable editorial, privacy, security, and record-management requirements. They are not made publicly accessible merely because published content is preserved.

2. Preservation Is Distinct from Access and Indexing

3. Operational Backup of the OJS Platform

The publisher's OJS administrator is responsible for maintaining recoverable backups of the components required to restore the journal platform. A complete backup set includes:

Backups must be automated where practicable, encrypted or access-controlled, and stored separately from the production server. The administrator should maintain multiple generations of backup so that corruption, accidental deletion, ransomware, or delayed detection does not overwrite every recoverable copy.

4. Long-Term Distributed Preservation

MJ will seek to preserve published content in a recognised long-term preservation service compatible with OJS, such as the PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN), or another suitable service recorded by the Keepers Registry.

After external preservation is verified, this page should be updated with the service name, commencement date, coverage, and a verifiable registry or deposit-status reference where publicly available. Deposit failures must be investigated, corrected, and documented.

5. File Formats, Metadata, and Migration

• The version of record is retained in the published format, normally PDF, together with its descriptive and administrative metadata.
• The journal prefers open, documented, widely supported, and non-proprietary formats where editorially and technically practicable.
• Metadata exports and OJS-native export packages may be retained to support reconstruction, migration, and deposit into preservation services.
• When a format, plugin, or platform becomes obsolete, content may be migrated to a supported format or platform while retaining the original file where lawful and practicable.
• Migration must preserve the article identity, authorship, title, DOI, publication history, licensing statement, and links to post-publication notices.

6. Integrity and Version-of-Record Controls

Published articles normally remain available as part of the permanent scholarly record. The journal does not silently replace, delete, or materially alter the version of record. When a change is necessary:

• the original article record and DOI landing page are retained whenever legally and technically possible;
• a dated correction, erratum, expression of concern, retraction, or removal notice is issued under the applicable policy;
• the article and notice are linked bidirectionally;
• metadata is updated without obscuring the publication history; and
• preserved copies are updated or supplemented according to the preservation service's procedures.

Removal of content is reserved for exceptional legal, privacy, safety, or serious ethical circumstances and is governed by the journal's post-publication policies, not by this preservation policy.

7. Monitoring and Restore Testing

1. Backup monitoring: automated jobs and storage capacity are reviewed regularly; failed jobs generate follow-up action.
2. Integrity checking: unexpected changes, missing files, unreadable files, and metadata inconsistencies are investigated.
3. Restore testing: representative database and file restores are tested at least twice each year and after substantial infrastructure changes.
4. Deposit review: external preservation status is checked after issue publication and periodically thereafter when an external service is active.
5. Documentation: backup dates, restore tests, failures, corrective actions, migrations, and verified external deposits are recorded.

8. Disaster Recovery

9. Cessation and Continuity of Access

If MJ ceases publication, changes publisher, migrates platform, or can no longer maintain its website, Universitas Dehasen Bengkulu will take reasonable steps to preserve continued access to previously published content. Depending on the circumstances, the publisher will:

• maintain a read-only archive of published issues and notices;
• transfer the journal record to an authorised institutional repository, successor publisher, preservation service, or other trustworthy custodian;
• notify an active preservation service of a qualifying trigger event where applicable;
• preserve DOI landing pages or arrange durable redirects and update registered DOI URLs;
• retain the publication history, licensing information, and post-publication notices; and
• publish a notice explaining the cessation, transfer, or new access location.

10. Roles and Responsibilities

11. Review, Evidence, and Contact

This policy is reviewed at least annually and after a significant platform migration, preservation-service change, major incident, or change in publisher responsibility. The journal maintains internal evidence appropriate to the control, including backup logs, restore-test records, issue-deposit status, error reports, migration records, and corrective actions. Sensitive infrastructure details are not published when disclosure would create a security risk.