Digital Archiving and Long-Term Preservation Policy

The Herald of the National Children's Medical Center is committed to maintaining the accessibility, integrity, authenticity, retrievability, and continuity of its published scholarly record and associated metadata.

Digital preservation is treated as a function distinct from ordinary website hosting and routine technical backup. The journal therefore maintains operational backup and recovery procedures for its current publishing infrastructure while recognizing that such procedures alone do not constitute independent long-term digital preservation.

At present, the journal does not claim participation in an independent third-party long-term preservation service. If such a preservation arrangement is implemented and verified in the future, this policy will be updated accordingly.

This policy should be read together with the journal’s Open Access Policy, Repository Policy, Copyright and Licensing Policy, and Corrections, Retractions and Post-Publication Updates Policy.

Scope of Preservation

Where technically and legally applicable, the journal seeks to preserve:

  • published articles;
  • article metadata;
  • titles, abstracts, and keywords;
  • author and affiliation metadata;
  • DOI and other persistent-identifier information;
  • volume and issue metadata;
  • final PDF and/or HTML publication files;
  • supplementary materials published as part of the scholarly record;
  • Corrections;
  • Retraction notices;
  • Expressions of Concern;
  • other formal post-publication notices;
  • copyright and licensing information necessary to interpret the published record.

Confidential submission files, peer-review reports, internal editorial correspondence, and sensitive participant-level research data are governed separately by applicable confidentiality, research-ethics, privacy, and data-management requirements.

Preservation of the Version of Record

The journal seeks to preserve the official Version of Record (VoR) of each published article together with the metadata required to identify, retrieve, cite, and interpret it accurately.

Where a published article is subsequently associated with a:

  • Correction;
  • Retraction;
  • Expression of Concern;
  • updated or replaced version;
  • other formal notice affecting the status of the article,

the relationship between the article and the relevant notice or version should be maintained.

The publication history of an article must not be obscured through undocumented replacement of published files.

Operational Backup

The journal maintains operational backup procedures intended to reduce the risk of data loss arising from:

  • server failure;
  • software malfunction;
  • accidental deletion;
  • data corruption;
  • unauthorized modification;
  • information-security incidents;
  • infrastructure failure;
  • other technical problems.

Where reasonably feasible, backup copies should be maintained separately from the primary production environment and should support restoration of essential journal content and metadata.

Backup Is Not the Same as Long-Term Preservation

Routine backup of a server, database, or publishing platform is necessary for disaster recovery but does not by itself constitute sufficient long-term scholarly preservation.

Long-term preservation should ultimately provide a means of maintaining or restoring the scholarly record even if the journal’s current website, server, publishing platform, or technical environment becomes unavailable.

The journal therefore distinguishes between:

  1. operational backup and disaster recovery; and
  2. long-term preservation of the scholarly record.

Current Long-Term Preservation Status

At present, the journal preserves published content and associated metadata through its electronic publishing infrastructure and operational backup procedures.

The journal does not currently deposit its published content on a routine basis with an independent third-party long-term digital preservation service.

The journal may implement an appropriate independent preservation arrangement in the future. Before publicly identifying such a service, the journal should verify that:

  • the preservation service is operational;
  • journal content is actually being deposited;
  • deposits are being successfully processed;
  • the preservation status can be reasonably verified.

The journal will claim participation in PKP Preservation Network, LOCKSS, CLOCKSS, Portico, or any other preservation system only when such participation and actual preservation are active and verifiable.

Installation of a plugin, selection of a service in platform settings, submission of an application, or a future intention to participate does not by itself demonstrate that journal content has been preserved.

Once an independent preservation arrangement is implemented and verified, this policy will be updated to identify the service accurately.

Publishing Platform and Preservation

The journal’s electronic publishing platform supports the structured management of articles, issues, publication files, and metadata.

However, operation of the journal through Open Journal Systems (OJS) does not by itself constitute an independent long-term preservation mechanism.

If an OJS preservation plugin or external preservation service is introduced in the future, the journal should verify that published content is actually being deposited and preserved rather than relying solely on the presence of the plugin or configuration.

Server, Domain, or Platform Migration

Preservation of the scholarly record is a priority when the journal changes its:

  • server;
  • domain;
  • OJS version;
  • publishing platform;
  • publisher or technical service provider.

Where applicable, migration procedures should protect:

  • published articles;
  • existing article URLs where reasonably possible;
  • DOI resolution;
  • bibliographic metadata;
  • volume and issue structure;
  • supplementary files;
  • copyright and licensing information;
  • Correction and Retraction notices;
  • other formal post-publication notices.

Changes to the platform, hosting environment, or website design must not result in the unjustified loss of previously published scholarly content.

Persistent Identifiers

Persistent identifiers such as DOIs support the long-term identification and discovery of scholarly publications.

If the location of an article changes, the journal should update the relevant DOI metadata and destination URL.

A change of server, domain, or publishing platform does not by itself justify assigning a new DOI to the same Version of Record.

Metadata Preservation

Digital preservation should include not only publication files but also metadata necessary to identify, retrieve, cite, and interpret the scholarly record.

Relevant metadata may include:

  • article title;
  • authors;
  • affiliations;
  • abstract;
  • keywords;
  • publication date;
  • journal title;
  • volume and issue;
  • DOI;
  • license;
  • article status;
  • relationships to Corrections, Retractions, or other post-publication notices.

Integrity and Authenticity of Files

Preserved publication files should accurately represent the official scholarly record.

Published files must not be altered in an unauthorized or undocumented manner.

Where a substantive change to a published article is necessary, it should be handled through the journal’s formal post-publication procedures rather than through silent replacement of the file.

Corrections, Retractions and Version Control

Corrections, Retraction notices, Expressions of Concern, and other formal post-publication updates form part of the scholarly record and should be preserved together with the affected article.

A retracted article will normally remain identifiable as part of the scholarly record but must be clearly marked as retracted and linked to the relevant Retraction notice.

Detailed procedures are provided in the journal’s Corrections, Retractions and Post-Publication Updates Policy.

Repository Copies

Author self-archiving may contribute to dissemination and additional availability of scholarly content but does not replace the journal’s responsibility for maintaining the official Version of Record.

Authors may deposit permitted manuscript versions in appropriate repositories in accordance with the journal’s Repository Policy.

Repository copies should not obscure later Corrections, Retractions, or other changes in publication status.

Open Access and Preservation

Immediate Open Access does not by itself guarantee long-term preservation.

The journal therefore treats the following as distinct but complementary functions:

  • Open Access — access to and reuse of published articles;
  • Repository Policy — author self-archiving and dissemination;
  • Digital preservation — long-term continuity, integrity, and recoverability of the scholarly record.

None of these mechanisms should be treated as an automatic substitute for the others.

Continuity if Journal Operations Cease

The journal recognizes the importance of maintaining previously published scholarly content if the journal:

  • temporarily suspends publication;
  • permanently ceases publication;
  • changes ownership or publishing arrangements;
  • changes its publishing platform;
  • loses access to its current website.

As far as reasonably and technically possible, previously published materials should remain recoverable and accessible through the journal’s available backup, migration, repository, and future preservation arrangements.

Monitoring and Review

The journal should periodically review its preservation arrangements, including:

  • whether backup copies are being created;
  • whether restoration procedures are functional;
  • completeness of publication files;
  • integrity of metadata;
  • functioning of DOI links;
  • success of external preservation deposits, if such a service is introduced;
  • whether infrastructure changes require updates to preservation procedures.

If an external preservation service is introduced and later becomes unavailable or unsuitable, the journal should seek an appropriate alternative where reasonably possible.

Transparency of Preservation Status

The journal will publicly identify only those preservation systems in which its content is actually being deposited and preserved in a verifiable manner.

A logo, installed plugin, selected configuration, submitted application, or planned future participation will not be presented as evidence of completed preservation.

If the journal’s preservation infrastructure changes, the public policy will be updated accordingly.

Responsibilities

The Editor-in-Chief and editorial leadership provide overall oversight of the integrity and continuity of the scholarly record.

Within their assigned roles, the Publisher and technical support provider support:

  • platform stability;
  • operational backup;
  • metadata integrity;
  • DOI maintenance;
  • migration;
  • technical recovery;
  • implementation and monitoring of preservation arrangements.

Technical responsibilities do not authorize modification of the scholarly record without appropriate editorial authorization.

Policy Application

This policy applies to scholarly content published by the journal and to the publication metadata associated with that content.

The journal’s objective is to maintain a scholarly record that is complete, authentic, traceable, accessible, and capable of long-term preservation, including transparent relationships between original publications and subsequent Corrections, Retractions, Expressions of Concern, and other formal updates.

Any preservation mechanism publicly identified by the journal must accurately reflect its current and verifiable preservation practice.


ISSN 2181-3353 (Online)