Archiving and Digital Preservation

1. Purpose and Scope

AMG Transcend Association is committed to supporting the continued accessibility, integrity, and continuity of the scholarly content published by its journals.

This policy establishes publisher-level principles concerning journal archives, digital preservation, persistent identification, publication metadata, continuity of access, post-publication records, and transparency concerning external preservation arrangements.

Digital preservation is distinct from indexing, abstracting, discoverability, DOI registration, and ordinary website availability. These services may support access to scholarly content but must not be represented as equivalent to participation in a dedicated long-term digital-preservation service.

2. Preservation of the Scholarly Record

Published scholarly content is intended to remain part of the permanent scholarly record.

AMG Transcend Association seeks to maintain continued access to published journal content and to preserve the relationship between articles and any subsequent formal changes to their publication status.

The scholarly record includes, as applicable:

  • published articles;
  • article metadata;
  • figures and supplementary materials published with an article;
  • corrections;
  • Expressions of Concern;
  • retraction notices; and
  • other formal post-publication notices.

Historical content must not be removed merely because it is no longer current, receives limited readership, or does not contribute to current journal metrics.

3. Journal Archives

Each AMG Transcend Association journal must maintain organized online access to its published scholarly content.

Journal archives should provide sufficient bibliographic organization to allow readers to identify and retrieve published material through information such as:

  • publication year;
  • volume and issue;
  • article title;
  • authors;
  • publication date;
  • article number or pagination; and
  • persistent identifiers where available.

Historical journal content should remain accessible through the journal’s archive structure for as long as the publisher maintains responsibility for that content.

4. Persistent Identification

AMG Transcend Association supports the use of persistent identifiers for scholarly publications.

Where Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) or other persistent identifiers are assigned, associated metadata and destination information should be maintained so that published works remain reliably identifiable despite reasonable changes to journal websites, publishing platforms, or URL structures.

Persistent identifiers support stable identification and linking but do not themselves constitute a complete digital-preservation system.

Changes in publishing infrastructure should therefore be managed in a manner that preserves both persistent identification and reasonable continuity of access to the underlying scholarly content.

5. Publication Metadata

Publication metadata is an important component of the scholarly record.

Relevant metadata may include:

  • article title;
  • authors and affiliations;
  • journal title;
  • publication date;
  • volume and issue information;
  • article number or pagination;
  • DOI or other persistent identifier;
  • abstract and keywords;
  • article type;
  • copyright and licensing information; and
  • publication-status information, including corrections or retractions where applicable.

Where metadata are distributed to external scholarly infrastructures, AMG Transcend Association and its journals should seek to maintain consistency between external records and the Version of Record published by the journal.

Material changes affecting article status should be reflected in relevant metadata where technically possible.

6. Integrity of the Published Record

The purpose of preservation is not only continued access but also maintenance of the identity and publication history of scholarly content.

Published articles must not be silently modified in ways that materially alter the scholarly record.

Where substantive changes are required after publication, they must be made transparently and in accordance with the Corrections, Retractions and Expressions of Concern policy.

The publication record should distinguish, where applicable, between:

  • the Version of Record;
  • formal correction notices;
  • corrected or republished versions;
  • Expressions of Concern;
  • retraction notices; and
  • other authorized post-publication records.

7. Corrections, Retractions, and Preservation

Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and retractions form part of the permanent scholarly record and should remain associated with the publications to which they relate.

Where technically possible:

  • the affected article should link to the relevant notice;
  • the notice should link to the affected article;
  • article metadata should reflect the applicable publication status;
  • relevant external metadata services should be updated; and
  • the relationship between the original article and subsequent editorial actions should remain clear.

Retraction must not ordinarily result in deletion of the article from the scholarly record.

Exceptional restriction or removal of publicly accessible content may occur only under the circumstances described in the Corrections, Retractions and Expressions of Concern policy.

8. Indexing, Identification, Backup, and Preservation

AMG Transcend Association distinguishes between several functions that support scholarly publishing:

  • indexing and abstracting, which facilitate discovery and bibliographic visibility;
  • persistent identification, which supports stable identification and linking;
  • operational backup, which may support recovery from technical failure; and
  • digital preservation, which is intended to support the continued integrity and accessibility of scholarly content over the long term.

These functions are related but are not interchangeable.

In particular, inclusion in an indexing service or assignment of a DOI must not be described as evidence that content is preserved through an independent long-term preservation archive.

9. External Digital-Preservation Services

Independent preservation services can provide an additional level of protection against loss of scholarly content resulting from technical failure, organizational change, platform discontinuation, or cessation of publishing activity.

AMG Transcend Association may establish arrangements with recognized digital-preservation infrastructures or scholarly archives where appropriate.

Participation in any external preservation service must be publicly claimed only after the relevant arrangement has been formally established and the journals or content covered by that arrangement have been confirmed.

AMG Transcend Association will not represent indexing, abstracting, DOI registration, search-engine discovery, repository visibility, or informal third-party copies as equivalent to participation in a dedicated digital-preservation service.

10. Current Preservation Status and Future Development

At the date of publication of this policy, AMG Transcend Association does not maintain a subscription or formal participation arrangement with a dedicated independent digital-preservation service such as Portico, CLOCKSS, or LOCKSS.

The publisher therefore does not claim participation in any external preservation service that has not been formally established.

Establishing an independent long-term digital-preservation arrangement is a priority in the further development of AMG Transcend Association’s publishing infrastructure. The publisher intends to evaluate appropriate preservation services and implement a suitable arrangement as financial and technical resources permit.

Until such an arrangement is established, AMG Transcend Association will maintain access to its published journal archives through its existing publishing infrastructure and will continue to support stable identification and discoverability through appropriate publication metadata and persistent identifiers.

Once a dedicated preservation arrangement has been formally established, the relevant service, journals covered, and scope of preservation will be disclosed transparently on the publisher and relevant journal websites.

Any future statement concerning participation in Portico, CLOCKSS, LOCKSS, PubMed Central, or another external archive will be made only after the relevant participation, preservation, or deposit arrangement has been confirmed.

11. Repository and Archive Deposits

Where appropriate technical and contractual arrangements exist, AMG Transcend Association journals may deposit content and metadata with external repositories, scholarly archives, or preservation infrastructures.

Depending on the requirements of the receiving service, deposited materials may include:

  • structured article content;
  • publication PDFs;
  • figures;
  • supplementary materials;
  • article metadata;
  • copyright and licensing information; and
  • formal correction or retraction notices.

Deposit arrangements must respect applicable copyright, licensing, privacy, confidentiality, ethical, and technical requirements.

Repository deposit must not be described as long-term preservation unless the receiving service actually provides that function.

12. Changes in Publishing Infrastructure

Changes in hosting providers, journal websites, content-management systems, publishing platforms, domain structures, or other technical infrastructure should be managed with appropriate attention to continuity of access to previously published content.

Where applicable, migration planning should consider:

  • published article files;
  • publication metadata;
  • supplementary materials;
  • persistent identifiers;
  • archive navigation;
  • article URLs or redirects;
  • formal post-publication notices; and
  • links between related scholarly records.

A change in publishing technology or platform must not be treated as justification for abandoning previously published scholarly content.

13. Journal Transfer, Discontinuation, or Cessation

If an AMG Transcend Association journal is transferred, merged, renamed, discontinued, or ceases active publication, reasonable measures should be taken to maintain access to its historical scholarly record.

Where responsibility for a journal is transferred to another publishing entity, arrangements should address, where applicable:

  • continuity of article access;
  • persistent identifiers;
  • publication metadata;
  • copyright and licensing information;
  • corrections and other post-publication notices; and
  • future preservation responsibilities.

Discontinuation of active publication does not remove the importance of maintaining access to previously published scholarly content.

14. Open Access and Digital Preservation

Open access and digital preservation are complementary but distinct principles.

The fact that an article is freely accessible on a journal website does not by itself establish long-term digital preservation.

Similarly, preservation of an article does not determine the copyright or reuse rights applicable to that work.

Access to and reuse of AMG Transcend Association journal content remain governed by the applicable Open Access, Copyright and Licensing policy and by the license attached to the individual publication.

15. Transparency

AMG Transcend Association will provide accurate information concerning the archiving and digital-preservation arrangements applicable to its journals.

The publisher and its journals must not claim participation in a preservation service that has not been formally established or describe anticipated future arrangements as though they were already operational.

Where an external preservation arrangement is introduced, changed, or discontinued, the relevant public information should be updated accordingly.

The purpose of such transparency is to allow authors, readers, libraries, repositories, indexing services, and other stakeholders to understand how continued access to the scholarly record is supported.

16. Periodic Review

Digital-preservation arrangements should be reviewed periodically and when material changes occur in:

  • publishing infrastructure;
  • journal ownership or responsibility;
  • hosting arrangements;
  • preservation services;
  • publication formats; or
  • relevant technical requirements.

As resources permit, AMG Transcend Association will seek to strengthen its preservation arrangements and reduce dependence on the public journal website as the sole means of long-term access to published scholarly content.

17. Relationship with Other Policies

This policy should be read together with applicable AMG Transcend Association and journal policies concerning:

  • Open Access, Copyright and Licensing;
  • Corrections, Retractions and Expressions of Concern;
  • Data Integrity and Reproducibility;
  • Publication Ethics and Research Integrity; and
  • Editorial Independence and Governance.

Individual journals may provide additional information concerning confirmed preservation, repository, indexing, and archiving arrangements.