Archiving and Digital Preservation Policy

To ensure that the scholarly record published in the International Journal of Business Operations and Management Studies remains permanently accessible, discoverable, and structurally intact for future generations of researchers, clinicians, and historians, the journal enforces a comprehensive, multi-tiered digital preservation strategy.

In the digital publishing ecosystem, content can be vulnerable to technological obsolescence, platform transitions, or unexpected institutional disruptions. The journal mitigates these structural risks by partnering with major independent, long-term archiving preservation networks and utilizing standardized global persistent identifiers.

1. Permanent Digital Archiving Networks

The journal does not rely solely on its own server infrastructure or local backups to maintain its published content. Instead, the full text of every volume (including all semantic XML files, publisher-formatted PDFs, metadata files, and accompanying supplementary data sets) is automatically deposited into established international digital preservation archives.

1.1 CLOCKSS and LOCKSS

The journal utilizes the CLOCKSS (Controlled Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) and LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) initiatives. These decentralized, dark-archive systems distribute exact copies of the journal across a global network of major research libraries.

  • Decentralised Resilience: Content is continually checked and refreshed across multiple server locations to prevent data corruption.

  • Trigger Event Protection: In the unlikely event that the journal ceases publication or its primary platform becomes permanently unavailable, the CLOCKSS/LOCKSS network activates a "trigger event" protocol, ensuring that the entire archive is converted into an open-access public resource hosted securely by the preservation partners.

1.2 Portico

All published articles are permanently preserved within Portico, a leading digital preservation service initiated by JSTOR and Ithaka. Portico specializes in the long-term migration of scholarly content, ensuring that files remain structurally readable even as underlying file formats and software platforms evolve over decades.

2. Persistent Identification and Metadata Integration

To prevent broken URLs and ensure that research remains reliably citable in perpetuity, the journal utilizes an invariant referencing architecture.

                  [Manuscript Officially Published]
                                │
                                ▼
               [Generation of Metadata & XML Core]
                                │
                                ▼
         ┌──────────────────────┴──────────────────────┐
         ▼                                             ▼
 [Assign Persistent DOI]                       [Deposit in Crossref]
 (Crossref Registration)                       (Broadcast to Global Indexes)
         │                                             │
         └──────────────────────┬──────────────────────┘
                                │
                                ▼
           [Bi-directional Link Registered Globally]

2.1 Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs)

Every individual research paper, systematic review, case study, erratum, and retraction notice is assigned a unique, functional Digital Object Identifier (DOI) managed through Crossref. This alphanumeric string functions as a permanent, immutable URL. Even if the journal changes its domain name, web hosting provider, or institutional parent organization, the DOI resolves permanently to the correct, definitive Version of Record.

2.2 Standardized Metadata Delivery

The journal generates rich, open metadata for every publication. This metadata explicitly maps author identities, institutional affiliations, abstract copy, research funding declarations, and complete reference lists. This data is systematically deposited into Crossref, ensuring immediate discoverability by global discovery engines, abstracting networks, and library indexing systems.

3. Institutional Repository Policy (Self-Archiving)

The journal supports the green open-access movement and actively encourages authors to self-archive and distribute their work across institutional and subject-specific repositories.

The policy allows for immediate self-archiving without any embargo periods, structured across distinct versions of the manuscript:

Manuscript Phase Permitted Self-Archiving Channels
Preprint (Author's Original Manuscript) Authors may post their un-reviewed preprint to any independent server (e.g., SSRN, RePEc, or institutional servers) at any time. The preprint must feature a clear note indicating that it has been submitted for peer review but is not yet a peer-reviewed record.
Accepted Manuscript (Postprint) The peer-reviewed text, incorporating all editorial revisions but prior to publisher typesetting and layout design, can be uploaded to an institutional repository immediately upon formal administrative acceptance.
Version of Record (Final Published PDF) The final, publisher-formatted PDF featuring the volume, issue, page numbers, and active DOI link can be freely shared on personal academic pages, institutional repositories, and open networks immediately upon online publication. A full bibliographic reference to the journal must accompany the file.

4. Website and Metadata Contingency Maintenance

To protect ongoing, active access to files during standard operations, the journal’s technical infrastructure features:

  • Daily Incremental Backups: Full server mirroring conducted daily to secure the active tracking system and published catalog against localized hardware failure.

  • ORCID Integration: Mandating verified ORCID iDs for corresponding authors to ensure that author-to-paper identity mapping is robust against spelling variants or changes in institutional email addresses over time.