The Journal of Community Medicine and Health Sciences (JCMHS) is committed to the long-term digital preservation and accessibility of all published content. This Preservation and Archiving Policy outlines the technical and procedural strategies adopted to ensure permanent availability, authenticity, and usability of scholarly materials, in compliance with COPE, DOAJ, and Portico preservation standards.

JCMHS ensures perpetual access to all published content through multiple digital preservation partnerships, including Portico and LOCKSS.

1. Purpose and Commitment

The purpose of this policy is to guarantee uninterrupted access to JCMHS publications, regardless of future technological or organizational changes. The journal’s preservation framework safeguards against data loss, corruption, or obsolescence while maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record.

2. Preservation Objectives

JCMHS’s preservation objectives include:

Ensuring long-term availability of all published research articles and supplementary materials.
Preserving the authenticity and citation integrity of digital content.
Maintaining compatibility with evolving digital formats and metadata standards.
Complying with COPE, DOAJ, and global open-access preservation policies.

3. Preservation Network and Partnerships

The journal maintains redundant archiving through multiple partners and repositories:

Portico: A trusted third-party digital preservation service ensuring long-term accessibility of scholarly literature.
LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe): A distributed preservation network of libraries that continuously validates and replicates content.
Institutional Repositories: University and research organization archives hosting copies of JCMHS content.
National and International Indexing Services: Content metadata is preserved through Crossref, Google Scholar, and DOAJ.

4. Preservation Methods

The preservation strategy includes both active and passive preservation mechanisms:

Active Preservation: Migration of content to updated digital formats to prevent technological obsolescence.
Passive Preservation: Maintenance of multiple secure copies across independent storage systems (Portico, LOCKSS, institutional servers).

5. Archiving Workflow

All JCMHS content undergoes an archiving workflow post-publication:

Final articles and metadata are deposited into Portico and LOCKSS networks.
DOI registration and Crossref metadata submission ensure link permanence.
Article metadata (XML, Dublin Core, Crossref schema) is exported to indexing databases and repositories.
Institutional archives and secondary repositories receive public-access versions via OAI-PMH protocols.

6. Open Archives Initiative (OAI-PMH) Compliance

JCMHS fully supports the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH), allowing global harvesting of metadata and open sharing of indexed articles with compatible repositories such as BASE, OpenAIRE, and CORE.

7. Data Formats and Metadata Standards

The journal follows interoperable metadata standards to ensure usability across repositories:

Dublin Core and Crossref XML schemas
DOI (Digital Object Identifier) integration
Creative Commons license embedding
Structured metadata for authors, affiliations, abstracts, and references

8. Version Control and Authenticity

All versions of articles (submitted, accepted, and published) are uniquely identified and preserved. The final published version (Version of Record) is marked clearly and permanently associated with its DOI. Any corrections, retractions, or replacements follow COPE procedures and are documented accordingly.

9. Institutional Archiving

In addition to external preservation, JCMHS maintains institutional archives hosted by Peertechz Publications Pvt. Ltd.. These internal backups are securely stored with restricted access and redundant replication to prevent data loss due to hardware or system failure.

10. Redundancy and Backup Strategy

To mitigate data loss risks, the journal employs a multi-tier redundancy strategy:

Primary and secondary cloud storage with automatic synchronization.
Daily incremental and weekly full backups of all journal data.
Quarterly verification of stored files for corruption or mismatch.
Annual test retrievals to confirm system integrity.

11. Disaster Recovery Plan

The disaster recovery protocol ensures that journal data remain safe even in case of technical failure, cyberattack, or physical disaster. Recovery steps include:

Immediate retrieval from Portico or LOCKSS mirror archives.
Restoration of data from secondary cloud storage.
Verification of DOI integrity and Crossref records.
Notification to stakeholders about recovery status.

12. Digital Preservation of Supplementary Files

All supplementary materials (datasets, videos, figures, appendices) undergo identical archiving and preservation protocols. Large datasets are hosted on open repositories (e.g., Zenodo, Figshare, Dryad) and linked within the article’s metadata record.

13. Legal and Ethical Compliance

Preservation activities comply with applicable copyright laws, GDPR data protection regulations, and COPE best practices. Archived copies cannot be altered post-publication, ensuring academic authenticity and legal transparency.

14. Access and Discoverability

Preserved content remains open and discoverable through:

DOI linking via Crossref
Google Scholar and Scilit indexing
OAI-PMH harvesting to open-access repositories
Integration with Portico’s public preservation registry

15. Content Migration and Format Conversion

To ensure long-term readability, content is periodically reviewed and migrated to newer formats as required. JCMHS uses widely supported formats (PDF, XML, HTML) with metadata embedded for accessibility and compliance with open standards.

16. Preservation of Metadata and References

Metadata are stored in machine-readable formats compatible with bibliographic databases. References are archived in standardized formats to maintain citation accuracy and integration with systems such as Crossref and Scopus.

17. Audit and Verification

Preservation systems undergo annual audits to verify redundancy, accessibility, and compliance with international preservation frameworks. The audit results are reviewed by the Editorial Board and publisher for continuous improvement.

18. Publisher’s Responsibilities

Peertechz Publications Pvt. Ltd. ensures the following preservation guarantees:

Continuous monitoring of archiving systems and backup integrity.
Collaboration with digital preservation services such as Portico and LOCKSS.
Participation in community initiatives promoting open-access preservation.
Regular reporting of preservation status to indexing bodies and DOAJ.

19. Role of Libraries and Institutions

Partner libraries and academic institutions play a crucial role in maintaining the scholarly record. Through the LOCKSS program, multiple libraries store JCMHS content independently to ensure replication and authenticity verification across nodes.

20. Preservation of Journal Metadata in Portico

Every published article is deposited in Portico, which provides an independent, long-term digital archive for scholarly literature. Portico ensures that in the event of the journal’s discontinuation, all content remains accessible through its preserved copy.

21. Continuous Availability and Succession Plan

In case JCMHS or Peertechz Publications ceases operations, all published content will continue to be accessible via Portico, LOCKSS, and institutional repositories. This succession plan guarantees uninterrupted access to the entire archive for researchers worldwide.

22. Policy Review and Maintenance

This Preservation and Archiving Policy is reviewed annually to incorporate new technologies, evolving standards, and emerging best practices in digital preservation. Updates are publicly announced on the journal website.

“Preserving knowledge ensures that the scientific contributions of today remain accessible to the communities of tomorrow.”