Archiving and Preservation | Health Nexus: Digital Health and Medical AI

Health Nexus: Digital Health and Medical AI is committed to maintaining the continuing accessibility, authenticity, integrity, usability, and traceability of its published scholarly content.

The journal and Panorama Scholarly Group recognise that ordinary server backups alone do not constitute long-term digital preservation. The journal therefore maintains a preservation framework combining operational backup, content export, persistent identification, version control, external archival deposit, integrity monitoring, disaster recovery, and organisational continuity planning.

The purpose of this policy is to ensure that published articles and associated scholarly records remain discoverable and accessible if the journal website experiences technical failure, data loss, cyberattack, platform migration, organisational disruption, or permanent cessation of publication.

1. Preservation Objectives

The journal’s archiving and preservation programme is intended to:

Protect published content against accidental deletion, corruption, hardware failure, software failure, cyberattack, and human error;
Maintain access to the scholarly record during technical or organisational disruption;
Preserve the authenticity and integrity of the Version of Record;
Retain corrections, expressions of concern, retractions, and version histories;
Support migration to future publishing systems and file formats;
Maintain persistent links, identifiers, metadata, and citation continuity;
Enable recovery if the primary journal platform becomes unavailable;
Ensure that published content remains accessible if the journal or publisher ceases operating;
Support indexing, repository deposit, library discovery, and long-term scholarly use.

2. Difference between Backup and Digital Preservation

The journal distinguishes between operational backup and long-term digital preservation.

Operational Backup

Operational backup supports restoration of the journal website and publishing system following short-term technical failure, deletion, data corruption, or security incidents.

Operational backups may include:

OJS databases;
Published article files;
Submission and production files;
Journal configuration files;
Website themes and plugins;
Uploaded images and supplementary files;
Metadata and system settings;
Relevant server and audit records.

Long-Term Digital Preservation

Long-term digital preservation is intended to maintain scholarly content independently of the journal’s primary website, server, software platform, or organisational continuity.

Digital preservation may involve:

Deposit with an independent preservation service;
Multiple geographically distributed archival copies;
Fixity and integrity checking;
Preservation metadata;
Format identification and migration;
Controlled recovery or public release if the original publisher can no longer provide access.

A backup copy maintained only on the same server or under the same administrative account as the journal website is not considered sufficient long-term preservation.

3. Current Preservation Status

Primary publishing platform: Open Journal Systems

Long-term external preservation service: The journal is completing implementation and verification of an independent long-term digital-preservation arrangement. The name of the active preservation service, date of commencement, and verified deposit status will be displayed on this page after successful enrolment and ingest have been confirmed.

Interim continuity measures: Published content, article metadata, issue records, and system data are included within the publisher’s operational backup, export, and recovery procedures.

The journal will not claim participation in a named preservation network until:

The relevant agreement or terms of participation have been accepted;
The required preservation service or plugin has been configured correctly;
Published content has been deposited successfully;
The deposit status has been verified;
The journal is authorised to display the service’s name or logo.

Once an external preservation arrangement becomes active, this section will be updated to identify the service and its verified coverage.

4. Preservation Framework

The journal’s preservation framework consists of several complementary layers:

Primary publication layer: the live OJS journal platform and published article pages;
Operational recovery layer: database, file-system, configuration, and system backups;
Export layer: structured exports of issues, articles, metadata, and related files;
External preservation layer: deposit with an independent recognised preservation service;
Repository layer: lawful author and institutional archiving of article versions;
Identifier and metadata layer: persistent identifiers, structured metadata, and indexing records;
Continuity layer: procedures for platform migration, publisher transfer, disaster recovery, and cessation of publication.

No single layer is treated as a complete substitute for the others.

5. Content Covered by Preservation

The journal seeks to preserve the complete published scholarly record, including, where technically and legally possible:

Article landing pages;
HTML full text;
PDF Versions of Record;
XML or other structured full-text formats;
Article titles, abstracts, keywords, and bibliographic metadata;
Author names, affiliations, and ORCID identifiers;
DOIs and other persistent identifiers;
Funding and conflict-of-interest statements;
Data Availability Statements;
AI-use declarations;
References and citation metadata;
Figures, tables, appendices, and supplementary files;
Issue covers, tables of contents, volume and issue information;
Editorials, letters, commentaries, and other published content;
Corrections, expressions of concern, retractions, and removal notices;
Article version and publication-status information;
Copyright and licensing information.

Confidential submission records, reviewer identities, unpublished reviewer reports, internal editorial discussions, payment information, and restricted personal data are not made publicly accessible through the preservation system merely because published articles are preserved.

6. Published Content and Editorial Records

The journal distinguishes between the public scholarly record and confidential editorial records.

Public Scholarly Record

The public scholarly record includes articles, metadata, supplementary materials, and post-publication notices that have been formally released by the journal.

Confidential Editorial Records

Confidential editorial records may include:

Submitted but unpublished manuscripts;
Reviewer reports;
Reviewer identities;
Internal editorial correspondence;
Research-integrity investigation materials;
Conflict-of-interest forms;
Payment and invoice records;
Personal information not intended for publication.

Confidential editorial records may be retained under separate records-management, security, privacy, and legal procedures. They are not included automatically within publicly accessible preservation packages.

7. External Preservation Services

The journal seeks to deposit published content with one or more independent long-term preservation services recognised within the scholarly communication community.

Potential services may include:

The PKP Preservation Network;
CLOCKSS;
LOCKSS-based preservation services;
Portico;
PubMed Central, where the journal and article content are eligible;
The Internet Archive;
Another preservation agency represented in the Keepers Registry.

Inclusion in this list does not imply that the journal is currently enrolled in every service. Active services will be identified explicitly in the Current Preservation Status section only after successful verification.

The journal may use more than one preservation provider to reduce dependence on a single institution, technology, jurisdiction, or technical infrastructure.

8. Preservation Service Verification

The editorial office or publisher will verify preservation arrangements by reviewing, where available:

Deposit status reports;
Preservation-service dashboards;
Issue- or article-level ingest records;
Preservation manifests;
Persistent identifiers;
Keepers Registry records;
Provider confirmation or participation records;
Error and scheduled-task logs;
Sample retrieval or restoration results.

Enabling a plugin, selecting a checkbox, submitting an application, or displaying a logo does not by itself establish that published content has been preserved successfully.

The journal will seek to investigate failed, incomplete, delayed, or rejected deposits and will not knowingly describe affected content as preserved until the issue has been resolved.

9. Operational Backup Procedures

Panorama Scholarly Group will maintain operational backup procedures appropriate to the journal’s publishing platform and risk profile.

The backup programme should include:

Regular automated backups of the OJS database;
Regular backups of the OJS files directory;
Backups of public article files and supplementary content;
Backups of relevant configuration and application files;
Retention of more than one backup generation;
Storage of at least one copy separately from the production server;
Encryption or access controls appropriate to confidential data;
Monitoring of backup completion and error reports;
Periodic restoration testing;
Documented responsibility for backup oversight.

The precise frequency and retention schedule may be adjusted according to publication volume, server architecture, security requirements, storage capacity, and operational risk.

10. Geographic and Administrative Separation

Where practicable, preservation and recovery copies should not depend entirely upon:

The same physical server;
The same storage device;
The same data centre;
The same cloud account;
The same administrator credentials;
The same geographic location;
The same organisational unit;
The same software platform.

Geographic and administrative separation reduces the risk that a single technical failure, security incident, disaster, account suspension, or organisational disruption will affect all copies simultaneously.

11. File Integrity and Fixity

The journal and its preservation providers may use file-integrity procedures to detect unintended modification or corruption.

Such procedures may include:

Checksums or cryptographic hashes;
File-size comparison;
Manifest validation;
Automated integrity monitoring;
Comparison against prior or deposited versions;
Validation of package completeness;
Review of deposit and retrieval logs.

Where corruption or inconsistency is identified, the journal may restore the affected file from a verified copy or redeposit a corrected preservation package.

Integrity checking is intended to detect unauthorised or accidental change; it does not prevent the journal from issuing transparent authorised corrections or new article versions.

12. Preservation Formats

The journal seeks to use durable, widely supported, and appropriately documented formats for published and preserved content.

Formats may include:

PDF or PDF/A where technically appropriate;
HTML;
XML, including structured scholarly XML where available;
Plain-text metadata;
Standard image formats such as TIFF, PNG, JPEG, or SVG;
Structured metadata and export formats supported by OJS;
Open or widely supported supplementary-file formats where practical.

The presence of a proprietary or specialised format does not automatically prevent publication, but authors may be asked to provide documentation or an additional accessible format where necessary for long-term usability.

13. Format Migration

File formats, software, and publishing platforms may become obsolete. The journal or preservation provider may therefore migrate, transform, or normalise files to maintain accessibility.

Format migration should:

Preserve the intellectual content and scholarly meaning;
Maintain links to the original article and Version of Record;
Retain relevant metadata and rights information;
Avoid undocumented substantive alteration;
Preserve the original file where practicable;
Record material preservation actions.

A preservation-format migration does not create a new scholarly edition unless the intellectual or scientific content has been changed.

14. Persistent Identifiers

The journal seeks to assign persistent identifiers to published articles and relevant post-publication notices.

Persistent identifiers support:

Stable citation;
Linking between article versions;
Linking of corrections and retractions;
Metadata dissemination;
Repository and preservation deposits;
Recovery following domain or platform changes.

A DOI or other identifier does not preserve the article file by itself. Persistent identification and digital preservation are complementary but distinct functions.

Where the journal website, domain, or hosting platform changes, the publisher will seek to update identifier records so that persistent links continue to resolve to the appropriate Version of Record or archival copy.

15. Metadata Preservation

The journal seeks to preserve and disseminate structured metadata sufficient to identify, discover, cite, and interpret published content.

Preserved metadata may include:

Journal title and abbreviation;
ISSN and eISSN;
Article title and subtitle;
Author names and affiliations;
ORCID identifiers;
Abstract and keywords;
Article type;
Publication, submission, revision, and acceptance dates;
Volume, issue, article number, and pagination;
DOI and related identifiers;
References;
Funding information;
Copyright holder and licence;
Correction, retraction, and version status;
Links to data, code, protocols, and supplementary materials.

Metadata may be distributed to DOI agencies, repositories, indexing services, library systems, preservation services, and other scholarly infrastructures.

16. OAI-PMH and Structured Exports

The journal may make metadata available through OAI-PMH and other standard export or interoperability mechanisms supported by OJS.

Such mechanisms support:

Metadata harvesting;
Library discovery;
Repository integration;
Indexing;
Transfer between publishing platforms;
Reconstruction of bibliographic records.

OAI-PMH harvesting and metadata export are useful continuity tools but do not, by themselves, constitute complete long-term preservation of article files and associated content.

17. Version of Record and Version Control

The Version of Record is the final article formally published by the journal and identified by its official citation and persistent identifier.

The journal will seek to preserve:

The original published version;
Any formally corrected version;
The date and nature of authorised changes;
Links to correction or retraction notices;
The article’s current publication status;
Earlier versions where required for transparency and provenance.

A published article will not be replaced silently by a materially different version.

Readers should be directed to the most recent authorised Version of Record while the publication history remains traceable.

18. Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions

Corrections, expressions of concern, retractions, and related notices form part of the permanent scholarly record and must be preserved with the affected article.

The journal will seek to ensure that:

The notice remains permanently accessible;
The notice and original article are linked in both directions;
The article’s status appears in its metadata;
Preservation services receive updated status information;
Retracted articles remain identifiable as retracted;
Superseded versions are not presented as current without warning.

Retraction does not ordinarily result in deletion of the article from the preservation record.

19. Article Removal

Complete removal of published content is reserved for exceptional circumstances involving overriding legal, privacy, confidentiality, security, or immediate safety concerns.

Where an article must be removed:

The bibliographic landing page should normally remain available;
A removal notice should explain the general reason, subject to legal and privacy constraints;
The DOI and citation record should remain traceable;
Preservation and indexing services should be notified;
A restricted internal archival copy may be retained where lawful and necessary.

Preserved copies will not be released publicly where release would violate law, patient confidentiality, participant consent, personal safety, or a binding legal restriction.

20. Supplementary Materials

Supplementary materials published as part of an article should be included in preservation deposits where technically, legally, and ethically possible.

Such materials may include:

Additional tables and figures;
Research instruments;
Reporting checklists;
Protocols and analysis plans;
Code and software files;
Audio and video materials;
Model documentation;
Prompts and evaluation materials;
Additional methodological documentation.

External datasets, code repositories, software platforms, and third-party resources linked from an article may be preserved under separate repository arrangements and are not necessarily controlled by the journal.

21. Research Data

The journal’s preservation of published articles does not automatically mean that all underlying research data are stored by the journal.

Research data may be:

Deposited in an independent data repository;
Held under controlled access;
Maintained by an institution or data custodian;
Restricted because of privacy, consent, legal, contractual, or security requirements;
Unavailable for lawful redistribution by the journal.

Authors remain responsible for complying with the journal’s Data Availability Policy and for selecting appropriate repositories and preservation arrangements for data, code, models, and other research outputs.

The journal will preserve the published Data Availability Statement and links or identifiers supplied with the article.

22. Author Self-Archiving

Authors may archive and share versions of their articles without an embargo, subject to accurate version identification and third-party rights.

Authors may ordinarily deposit:

The submitted manuscript;
The accepted manuscript;
The final published Version of Record.

Permitted locations include:

Institutional repositories;
Subject repositories;
Funder-designated repositories;
Personal or professional websites;
Non-commercial scholarly networks;
Teaching and learning platforms.

Where the Version of Record is deposited, the journal citation, DOI, copyright statement, licence information, and link to the official publication should be retained.

Self-archiving provides additional access and redundancy but does not replace the publisher’s responsibility to maintain a formal preservation plan.

23. Website and Domain Continuity

Panorama Scholarly Group will seek to maintain stable journal URLs and redirect superseded addresses where reasonably possible.

Where a domain, platform, hosting environment, or website structure changes, the publisher will seek to:

Redirect existing article URLs;
Update DOI destination records;
Maintain article and issue identifiers;
Preserve citation continuity;
Notify relevant indexing and preservation services;
Retain or redirect the former domain where practicable;
Avoid unnecessary changes to permanent article URLs.

The journal will not treat ordinary search-engine caching as a substitute for structured preservation.

24. Disaster Recovery

The publisher will maintain a disaster-recovery procedure appropriate to the journal platform.

The procedure may address:

Server or storage failure;
Database corruption;
Malware or ransomware;
Unauthorised modification or deletion;
Loss of administrative access;
Hosting-provider interruption;
Domain or DNS failure;
Natural disaster;
Loss of key personnel;
Platform migration failure.

Recovery priorities should include:

Protecting personal, confidential, and security-sensitive information;
Restoring the integrity of published scholarly content;
Restoring article and DOI access;
Restoring the editorial workflow;
Verifying that recovered data are complete and uncorrupted;
Communicating material interruptions to affected users.

25. Temporary Service Interruption

Where the primary journal website becomes temporarily unavailable, the publisher will seek to restore access from verified backups or an alternative hosting environment.

Where appropriate, the journal may:

Publish a service-status notice;
Provide temporary access through an authorised archive or repository;
Redirect users to preserved copies;
Notify authors, readers, and indexing services of a material interruption;
Suspend submission or production functions temporarily to protect data integrity.

A temporary website interruption does not change the publication status or copyright and licensing terms of previously published articles.

26. Cessation of the Journal

If Health Nexus: Digital Health and Medical AI permanently ceases accepting submissions or publishing new content, Panorama Scholarly Group will seek to maintain continuing public access to the existing scholarly record.

The publisher will seek to:

Publish a clear cessation notice;
State the date on which publication ceased;
Keep article landing pages and Versions of Record accessible;
Maintain DOI resolution;
Continue preservation deposits where possible;
Transfer preserved content to an appropriate archival or successor arrangement;
Retain corrections, retractions, and publication-status information;
Notify preservation, indexing, and DOI services of material changes;
Identify the party responsible for continuing maintenance of the archive.

If the publisher can no longer maintain public access, the journal will seek to permit the designated preservation service to make preserved content available under its applicable procedures and the published article licences.

27. Transfer to Another Publisher or Platform

If ownership, hosting, or management of the journal is transferred, the parties should seek to preserve the continuity and integrity of the scholarly record.

A transfer should address:

Article files and metadata;
DOI ownership or management;
Preservation-service participation;
Corrections and retraction records;
Copyright and licensing information;
Domain and URL redirection;
Confidential editorial records;
Data-protection responsibilities;
Existing author and reader access;
Long-term archival responsibility.

A journal transfer must not remove, conceal, or misrepresent the former publication history.

28. Security and Access Control

Backup and preservation procedures must be implemented with appropriate security and access controls.

Measures may include:

Role-based access;
Strong authentication;
Restricted administrative privileges;
Encryption during storage or transfer where appropriate;
Separation of public and confidential content;
Logging of administrative and preservation actions;
Security updates and vulnerability management;
Controlled deletion and retention procedures.

Preservation does not authorise public disclosure of confidential manuscripts, reviewer information, personal data, restricted research data, payment records, or investigation files.

29. Restoration Testing

Backups that have never been tested may not provide reliable recovery. The publisher should therefore conduct periodic restoration or recovery tests.

Testing may include:

Restoring a sample database;
Restoring selected article and supplementary files;
Verifying article-page functionality;
Checking links between metadata and files;
Reviewing checksum or integrity results;
Confirming that a preservation package can be retrieved;
Documenting errors and corrective actions.

Tests should avoid exposing confidential or personal data and should be conducted within an appropriately secured environment.

30. Monitoring and Audit

The publisher will periodically review the journal’s archiving and preservation arrangements.

The review may assess:

Whether scheduled backups completed successfully;
Whether backup retention remains adequate;
Whether external deposits are current;
Whether deposit errors remain unresolved;
Whether newly published issues are included;
Whether preservation-service agreements remain active;
Whether persistent identifiers resolve correctly;
Whether correction and retraction metadata have been transmitted;
Whether restoration procedures remain functional;
Whether software, file formats, or infrastructure require migration.

The journal may correct inaccurate website statements concerning preservation status when an audit identifies a discrepancy.

31. Changes in Preservation Provider

The journal may change, supplement, or discontinue a preservation provider where:

The service ceases operating;
The service no longer supports the journal’s platform or formats;
Deposits fail persistently;
Security, governance, financial, or legal concerns arise;
A more appropriate preservation arrangement becomes available;
The journal moves to a different publishing platform.

Where possible, the journal will establish a replacement preservation arrangement before discontinuing an existing service.

Changes will be reflected on this page so that readers and indexing services can identify the journal’s current preservation status.

32. Use of Preservation-Service Names and Logos

The journal will use the name, logo, badge, or participation mark of a preservation service only where:

The journal or publisher is an authorised participant;
The provider permits such use;
The description of participation is accurate;
Relevant deposits are active or their status is explained clearly;
The logo is not used to imply endorsement beyond the preservation relationship.

Removal, suspension, or expiration of participation may require removal or revision of the relevant logo and website statement.

33. Responsibilities

Responsibility for preservation is shared across the publishing operation.

Publisher

Panorama Scholarly Group is responsible for:

Maintaining an appropriate preservation framework;
Supporting infrastructure, backup, and continuity planning;
Establishing or approving external preservation arrangements;
Maintaining accurate public information about preservation status;
Supporting continuity if the journal ceases or transfers.

Editorial Office

The editorial office is responsible for:

Ensuring that published files and metadata are complete;
Maintaining accurate article and issue records;
Ensuring that corrections and retractions are linked properly;
Reporting missing, corrupt, or inaccessible content;
Cooperating with preservation-status reviews.

Technical Administrator

The technical administrator is responsible for:

Implementing approved backup procedures;
Monitoring scheduled tasks and preservation plugins;
Reviewing relevant system and deposit errors;
Maintaining security and access controls;
Supporting restoration and migration tests.

Authors

Authors are responsible for:

Providing complete and usable publication files;
Using appropriate formats for supplementary materials;
Maintaining research data and code under the Data Availability Policy;
Notifying the journal of broken repository links or withdrawn external materials;
Preserving third-party rights and confidentiality restrictions.

34. Preservation and Open Access

Published articles are made available under the licence stated on the individual article, normally the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.

Preservation copies retain:

The original copyright holder;
The applicable open licence;
The publisher attribution;
The DOI and article citation;
Third-party rights exclusions;
Correction or retraction status.

Preservation does not transfer copyright ownership to the preservation provider unless a separate lawful agreement states otherwise.

Where preserved content is released following a preservation trigger, it should remain subject to the licence and rights information associated with the Version of Record.

35. Relationship to Other Policies

This policy should be read together with the journal’s:

Open Access Policy;
Copyright and Licensing;
Data Availability Policy;
Corrections and Retractions;
Publication Ethics;
AI and Research Integrity Policy;
Complaints and Appeals;
Privacy Statement.

Where a preservation action involves personal information, confidential data, copyright restrictions, research-participant information, or a legal dispute, the applicable privacy, ethics, copyright, and legal requirements also apply.

36. External Standards and Resources

The journal’s preservation approach is informed by recognised guidance concerning scholarly publishing transparency, long-term access, distributed preservation, and journal continuity.

37. Policy Review

This policy may be revised to reflect changes in:

The journal’s active preservation providers;
OJS versions and preservation plugins;
Backup and cloud infrastructure;
File formats and scholarly publishing standards;
DOI and metadata practices;
Privacy, security, copyright, and legal requirements;
DOAJ and Keepers Registry guidance;
Publisher ownership, hosting, or organisational arrangements.

The journal will seek to keep the Current Preservation Status section accurate. A preservation provider will be added or removed from that section when its operational status changes materially.