Archiving

Archiving & Digital Preservation Policy

The Journal of Exact Community Health & Rehabilitation Sciences (JECH), published by EXACT RESEARCH SOLUTIONS (SMC-PRIVATE) LIMITED, is committed to ensuring the permanent, secure, and uninterrupted preservation of all published scholarly content. Our digital preservation strategy guarantees that clinical research in physiotherapy, rehabilitation, community health, and allied medical sciences remains permanently accessible to researchers, clinicians, and the global public—even in the event of hardware failures, platform migrations, or unforeseen operational interruptions.

Long-term Digital Preservation Systems

JECH employs robust preservation frameworks to ensure continuous availability and data integrity across the global scholarly record.

1.1 PKP Preservation Network (PKP-PN)

The journal participates in the PKP Preservation Network (PKP-PN), which utilizes LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) technology for decentralized, automated digital archiving.

The PKP-PN framework ensures:

  • Automated harvesting and permanent archival of all published volumes and articles.

  • Redundant digital preservation across distributed secure servers worldwide.

  • Complete protection against data corruption, hardware loss, or server outages.

1.2 Web & Digital Archiving Redundancy

To complement PKP-PN, the journal website (https://jech.exactresolution.com/), published articles, and associated metadata are regularly captured and indexed by public web archiving initiatives—including the Internet Archive (Wayback Machine)—for additional public preservation and secondary redundancy.

Self-Archiving & Repository Preservation

To encourage broad knowledge dissemination and long-term discovery, JECH supports full self-archiving rights. Authors retain unrestricted permissions to deposit all versions of their work without any embargo periods:

  • Submitted Version (Preprint): The un-peer-reviewed manuscript.

  • Accepted Version (Postprint): The final peer-reviewed, accepted manuscript prior to production.

  • Published Version (Version of Record): The final published PDF article.

Permitted Repositories Include:

  • Institutional and university repositories.

  • Subject-specific repositories and medical databases.

  • National digital libraries and archives.

  • Personal websites, research portals, and professional academic networks.

All self-archived versions must include full publication details, a complete citation credited to JECH, and a link to the CC BY 4.0 license.

Local Server Backups & Technical Safeguards

EXACT RESEARCH SOLUTIONS (SMC-PRIVATE) LIMITED maintains rigorous technical protocols to safeguard the journal’s database and file directories:

  • Daily Incremental Backups: Automatic snapshot backups of manuscript files, review histories, and database entries.

  • Weekly Full Backups: Full-system backups performed weekly to ensure comprehensive data recovery readiness.

  • Off-Site Encrypted Storage: Storage of encrypted backups on secure off-site servers isolated from the primary hosting environment.

  • Disaster Recovery Protocols: Documented data restoration pathways to ensure immediate operational recovery following unexpected technical or security incidents.

Metadata Preservation & Interoperability

All published articles and metadata are structured to support global harvesting, interoperability, and discoverability. Preserved metadata standards include:

  • ORCID iDs: Persistent digital identifiers integrated for authors and contributors where provided.

  • OAI-PMH Protocol: Fully enabled Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) to allow seamless metadata harvesting by indexing systems, libraries, and discovery tools.

  • Dublin Core Metadata: Standardized metadata tags embedded across all OJS web pages and downloadable files.

Article Permanence

Once published in JECH, articles become a permanent part of the official scientific record:

  • Published articles remain permanently accessible online without alteration.

  • Modifications are restricted strictly to formal publishing actions, including Errata, Corrigenda, Retractions, or Addenda in compliance with ICMJE Recommendations.

  • Retracted articles remain publicly accessible on the platform for archival integrity, clearly watermarked as "RETRACTED" and accompanied by a linked formal Retraction Notice.

Distributed Global Archiving & Indexing

To broaden global reach and guarantee perpetual accessibility, JECH exposes its structured metadata and article records to reputable indexing services, digital preservation networks, and scholarly search engines. This ensures that research published in JECH remains discoverable and accessible across multiple independent global channels.