Archiving and Digital Preservation Policy

International Journal of Interdisciplinary Medical Sciences (IJIMS) ISSN (Online): 3139-3071

Purpose

IJIMS is committed to ensuring the long-term availability, accessibility, and integrity of its published content, independent of the continued operation of the journal's website or publisher. This policy describes the measures the journal takes and intends to take to preserve published articles for future readers, researchers, and institutions.

Current Preservation Measures

  • OJS/PKP Platform: IJIMS is hosted on Open Journal Systems (OJS), an open-source platform developed by the Public Knowledge Project (PKP). All published content, metadata, and issue records are maintained in a structured, exportable format (XML/JATS-compatible) that supports migration and long-term preservation.

  • Persistent Metadata Records: Full bibliographic metadata for every published article — including author names, affiliations, abstracts, and keywords — is retained within the OJS database and is not dependent on the live website rendering.

  • Regular Data Backups: The journal's editorial office maintains periodic backups of the OJS database and file repository, stored independently of the primary web server.

Planned Enrollment in Third-Party Preservation Networks

As IJIMS builds a consistent publication history, the journal intends to enroll in one or more recognized digital preservation services to safeguard content against loss of access, including:

  • PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN): A free, decentralized preservation service built specifically for OJS-based journals, using LOCKSS technology. Enrollment is planned once the journal has published a minimum consistent volume of content, as required by PKP PN's onboarding criteria.

  • LOCKSS / CLOCKSS: Distributed digital preservation networks used widely by scholarly journals to guarantee perpetual access to content even if the publisher ceases operations.

  • National/institutional repository deposit: IJIMS is evaluating deposit arrangements with recognized Indian institutional or national digital repositories to further ensure local, long-term accessibility of published content.

DOI Assignment (Planned)

The journal intends to register Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) for all published articles through Crossref, which also provides an independent, permanent citation and discovery layer for content that persists regardless of the journal website's status.

Author and Reader Assurance

In the event that IJIMS ceases publication or changes hosting platforms, the journal is committed to:

  • Ensuring continued open access to all previously published content through its enrolled preservation network(s) or an equivalent archival arrangement.

  • Notifying readers, authors, and indexing bodies of any change in the journal's operational or hosting status.

  • Preserving the integrity of the scholarly record, including retraction notices and corrections, in line with the journal's Retraction and Editorial Expressions of Concern policy.

Contact

Questions regarding this policy may be directed to the Editorial Office at chief_editor@ijims.in.