Digital Archiving Policy
Digital Archiving Policy
Agricultural Science Horizons (ASH), published by the Gondars Institute of Research and Skill Development (GIRSD), is committed to the long-term preservation, accessibility, authenticity, and integrity of the scholarly record. The journal recognizes that digital preservation is an essential component of responsible scholarly publishing and ensures that published content remains permanently accessible to present and future generations of researchers.
This policy has been established in accordance with internationally recognized best practices in scholarly publishing and aligns with the transparency, sustainability, and preservation expectations commonly adopted by reputable indexing and abstracting services, including DOAJ, Scopus, and Web of Science.
1. Purpose of Digital Preservation
The purpose of this policy is to safeguard published scholarly content against technological failures, cyber incidents, accidental data loss, website disruptions, hardware failures, software obsolescence, or organizational changes that may threaten the long-term availability of published articles.
Agricultural Science Horizons is committed to maintaining permanent access to all officially published content.
2. Preservation Systems
The journal utilizes recognized digital preservation mechanisms and may employ multiple preservation systems simultaneously to ensure redundancy and long-term accessibility.
These systems may include the PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN), institutional repositories, secure server backups, cloud-based storage systems, and other trusted digital preservation infrastructures implemented by the publisher.
The use of multiple preservation mechanisms reduces the risk of permanent content loss.
3. PKP Preservation Network
When enabled through the Open Journal Systems (OJS) platform, Agricultural Science Horizons participates in the PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN) to create preserved copies of eligible published content.
PKP PN provides decentralized preservation infrastructure designed specifically for scholarly journals using OJS and serves as an additional safeguard for long-term accessibility.
4. Backup and Redundancy Measures
GIRSD maintains regular backups of journal databases, website files, article files, supplementary materials, metadata records, and associated publishing content.
Backup copies may be stored in geographically separate locations and secure environments to minimize the impact of unforeseen technical incidents.
Backup procedures are periodically reviewed and updated to strengthen data security and preservation reliability.
5. Preservation of Published Content
The journal preserves all official versions of published content, including articles, editorials, reviews, supplementary files, metadata records, publication histories, correction notices, expressions of concern, and retraction notices.
Preserved content remains part of the permanent scholarly record.
6. Metadata Preservation
Agricultural Science Horizons is committed to preserving bibliographic metadata associated with published articles.
Metadata may include article titles, author information, abstracts, keywords, publication dates, identifiers, references, and citation information necessary to support discoverability and scholarly communication.
7. Persistent Accessibility
The journal endeavors to maintain uninterrupted access to published content whenever technically feasible. In the event of temporary website outages or technical disruptions, restoration procedures will be initiated as quickly as possible.
Alternative preservation sources may be used to recover content when necessary.
8. Publisher Succession and Journal Continuity
If GIRSD undergoes organizational changes, transfers journal ownership, discontinues publication activities, or ceases operation, reasonable efforts will be undertaken to ensure the continued preservation and accessibility of previously published content.
The scholarly record shall remain protected regardless of future administrative changes.
9. Preservation of Corrected and Retracted Content
Corrections, expressions of concern, and retraction notices form part of the permanent scholarly record and will also be preserved.
Retracted articles will ordinarily remain accessible with clear identification of their publication status to maintain transparency and research integrity.
10. Security and Integrity Measures
GIRSD implements appropriate technical, administrative, and security measures to protect archived content from unauthorized alteration, corruption, accidental deletion, or malicious attacks.
The journal periodically reviews preservation procedures to strengthen digital resilience and maintain content authenticity.
11. Policy Review and Continuous Improvement
This policy may be periodically updated to reflect technological advancements, emerging preservation standards, and evolving best practices in scholarly publishing.
Agricultural Science Horizons and GIRSD remain committed to ensuring the long-term preservation, discoverability, and accessibility of scientific knowledge for the global research community.
12. Official Preservation Statement
Agricultural Science Horizons preserves its published content through multiple digital preservation and backup mechanisms to ensure the long-term accessibility, authenticity, and permanence of the scholarly record.
