Digital Preservation and Archiving Policy

This policy describes the journal’s verified preservation infrastructure, the measures used to support continued access to published content and metadata, and the limitations that still require confirmation. It distinguishes operational evidence from a service that is merely enabled in settings or proposed for future use. English is the reference version; Uzbek and Russian versions express the same policy.

Technical status verified on 1 September 2026. This is a point-in-time audit: services must be monitored and this statement updated when the infrastructure changes.

Contents

  1. Purpose and Scope
  2. Confirmed Infrastructure
  3. Long-Term Preservation Strategy
  4. OJS Published Archive
  5. LOCKSS and CLOCKSS Gateway Status
  6. Institutional Repository
  7. Server Backups and Recovery
  8. Metadata Preservation and Interoperability
  9. DOI Registration and Persistence
  10. Integrity Checks and Review
  11. Journal Closure and Continuity of Access
  12. Current Limitations
  13. Responsibility and Contact

1. Purpose and Scope

The journal aims to preserve published articles, issue files, supplementary material available through OJS, descriptive metadata and persistent identifiers for long-term discovery and access. Preservation is a shared technical and organisational responsibility and should not depend on a single website copy.

The policy covers the published scholarly record. Editorial working files, confidential submissions and peer-review material require separate retention and access controls and are not promised as part of the public archive.

2. Confirmed Infrastructure

The confirmed preservation and continuity components are the public OJS issue and article archive, OAI-PMH metadata, Crossref DOI registration and local Hestia server backups. OJS exposes public LOCKSS and CLOCKSS gateway pages, but no acceptance, harvesting or preserved holdings have been confirmed. Some authors voluntarily place articles in DSpace or other external services; those deposits are not controlled by the journal and do not constitute a complete journal archive.

3. Long-Term Preservation Strategy

The current operational strategy combines the primary OJS archive, machine-readable OAI-PMH metadata, Crossref DOI persistence and short-retention local recovery backups. External indexing and voluntary author deposits improve discovery or provide supplementary copies, but they are not presented as guaranteed preservation services. The journal will maintain these records as far as operationally possible and will update this policy when an independently verified preservation service is added.

4. OJS Published Archive

Published issues and articles remain accessible in the journal’s OJS archive with article landing pages and downloadable files. OJS stores the relationships among issues, articles, authors, publication metadata and files. Public issue and article URLs form the primary access copy.

The production database, public files and non-public OJS files needed for recovery must be handled together. Copying only the visible PDF files would not preserve the full publication structure or administrative metadata.

5. LOCKSS and CLOCKSS Gateway Status

OJS settings for the public LOCKSS and CLOCKSS gateway pages are enabled. The journal has no certificate, service agreement or holdings evidence showing that either network has accepted and preserved its content. Gateway availability therefore confirms technical exposure only and must not be described as guaranteed LOCKSS or CLOCKSS preservation.

6. Repository and Author Self-Archiving

DSpace is not managed by the journal as its official preservation repository. Authors may voluntarily deposit their articles, and such self-archiving is not mandatory. The journal does not control coverage, deposit timing, retention or updates and therefore does not claim that DSpace contains a complete or authoritative SRT archive.

7. Server Backups and Recovery

Hestia produces local server backups containing the journal website and database components. Backups are retained for up to four days and may be accessed only by the authorised server administrator. No off-site or geographically separate copy is currently maintained. A successful website and database restoration test was completed on 7 July 2026. These backups support operational recovery but are not a substitute for independent long-term preservation.

8. Metadata Preservation and Interoperability

The OJS OAI-PMH endpoint successfully returns repository identity information and Dublin Core records. This makes published metadata machine-readable for harvesting and migration. The DSpace repository also exposes an OAI-PMH endpoint, and deposited SRT records contain descriptive metadata and downloadable files.

Core preserved metadata should include title, authors and contributor identifiers where available, abstract, keywords, dates, journal/issue context, pagination or article identifier, language, licence, DOI, URL and relationships to files and notices. Metadata exports should be retained with database and file backups and checked after migrations.

9. DOI Registration and Persistence

The Crossref plugin is enabled in production mode. OJS contains registered DOI records, and a recent sampled DOI resolved through doi.org to its article page and was returned by the Crossref API. DOI registration supports persistent identification and metadata discovery; it does not itself store the article file.

The journal is responsible for maintaining DOI metadata and destination URLs. When an article URL changes, its Crossref resource URL should be updated rather than assigning a replacement DOI. Corrections, retractions and other notices should retain and link the original DOI history according to the Corrections, Retractions and Expressions of Concern Policy.

10. Integrity Checks and Review

The Technical Editor and authorised server administrator should check issue and article availability, files, OAI-PMH records, DOI resolution, backup completion and recovery readiness. The successful restoration test of 7 July 2026 confirms that a recovery procedure has been exercised, but future backups still require monitoring and periodic retesting. Missing files, broken DOI links or failed backups must be recorded and corrected.

11. Journal Closure and Continuity of Access

If active publication ceases, Karshi State Technical University is responsible for keeping the OJS site available in read-only form as far as operationally possible and for maintaining the domain and Crossref DOI destinations. Metadata and copies held by external databases may provide supplementary access, but they are not described as a guaranteed archive. The journal should publish a closure notice and preserve the OJS database, files and DOI account together.

12. Current Limitations

  • PKP Preservation Network is not claimed as active: the compatible plugin and a successful deposit have not been confirmed.
  • LOCKSS/CLOCKSS gateway pages are enabled, but acceptance, harvesting and preserved holdings are not confirmed.
  • DSpace deposits are voluntary author self-archiving and do not provide guaranteed complete coverage.
  • Backups are local, retained for up to four days and have no off-site copy.
  • The closure commitment is to maintain OJS, the domain and DOI links as far as operationally possible; no separately funded independent preservation archive is claimed.

13. Responsibility and Contact

Karshi State Technical University is responsible for the continuity commitment. The Technical Editor coordinates OJS and metadata checks, while the authorised server administrator controls backup access and recovery. Reports of missing files, broken DOI links or archive discrepancies may be sent to admin@srt-journal.uz, which is monitored by the Technical Editor.

Read this policy with the Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement, Open Access Policy and Corrections, Retractions and Expressions of Concern Policy.