Preservation and Archiving Policy

Our Preservation Strategy

APCR employs a layered preservation framework combining technical redundancy, format sustainability, persistent identifiers, and documented workflows. This strategy reduces single points of failure and ensures continuity even during platform evolution or migration.

1. Redundant Storage: replicated content across multiple data centers and cloud regions with geographic separation.
2. Fixity & Integrity: scheduled checksum generation (e.g., SHA-256) and automated validation; any drift triggers immediate remediation.
3. Format Sustainability: master files in archival-friendly formats (PDF/A for articles; TIFF/PNG for images; CSV/TSV for tabular data; MP4/H.264 or WAV/FLAC for media when applicable).
4. Persistent Identification: stable URLs and DOIs for the VoR; internal identifiers for all derivative and supplemental assets.
5. Metadata Interoperability: schema.org JSON-LD, Dublin Core exports, and article-level machine tags embedded in pages.

What We Preserve

• Article VoR: publisher-formatted, copyedited, paginated PDF and/or HTML with DOI.
• Front Matter: title, authors, affiliations, ORCID iDs, abstracts, keywords, article type.
• Figures & Tables: high-resolution image assets and structured table files where available.
• Supplementary Material: appendices, datasets, protocols, extended methods, multimedia.
• Editorial Notices: corrections, expressions of concern, retractions, and updates.
• Rights & License Info: machine-readable licensing and permissions statements.
• Provenance: timestamps, version identifiers, and transformation logs used in production.

Redundancy, Backups, and Recovery

Redundancy protects against both logical and physical failures. Primary content is mirrored in near real-time to secondary nodes, with frequent offsite snapshots. Disaster recovery plans are tested periodically through restoration drills to validate recovery time objectives (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO).

• Daily incremental and weekly full backups retained on rolling schedules.
• Encrypted at rest and in transit; restricted access with least-privilege controls.
• Documented runbooks for failover, data restoration, and service resumption.

Integrity, Fixity, and Audit Trails

APCR associates each preserved file with a checksum. Fixity audits compare stored values against recomputed checksums on a defined schedule. Any discrepancy is immediately quarantined for analysis, and verified replacements are logged in an immutable audit trail.

Format Policy and Migrations

To maintain usability over time, APCR prefers open, widely adopted, and well-documented formats. When formats become obsolete or exhibit compatibility risks, controlled migrations are performed. All migrations are tested for fidelity, documented, and reversible when feasible.

• Text: PDF/A-1b or newer; archival HTML with UTF-8 encoding.
• Images: TIFF (lossless) or PNG for preservation; JPEG for web derivatives.
• Data: CSV/TSV, JSON, or XML with clear dictionaries and units.
• Code: plain-text with versioned archives and README files.
• Audio/Video: lossless masters when feasible; web-friendly derivatives for streaming.

Identifiers, Citations, and Versioning

Each article’s VoR is assigned a DOI and a canonical URL. Article pages embed machine-readable metadata to ensure that reference managers and discovery services resolve to the VoR. When updates occur—such as corrections or retractions—the article record is versioned and cross-linked so that readers can trace the history of changes without ambiguity.

• Version notes list the date, nature of change, and impacted sections.
• Preprints and Author Accepted Manuscripts can be linked to the VoR for clarity.
• Retractions preserve the original record with clear notices to prevent silent disappearance.

Discovery and Interoperability

Preservation alone is insufficient without robust discovery. APCR exposes structured metadata and stable endpoints so that libraries, repositories, and indexing services can harvest and re-present content accurately.

• Exposed schema via JSON-LD on article pages for automated harvesting.
• Support for common export schemas that map to bibliographic platforms.
• Sitemaps refreshed on publication events and routinely revalidated.

Continuity of Access

APCR plans for platform changes and unforeseen outages through layered controls. Routine maintenance windows are announced in advance, while unexpected incidents trigger status updates and temporary access alternatives where possible, such as cached mirrors or static snapshots that preserve the VoR and citation metadata.

• Graceful degradation to static access during major incidents.
• Automated health checks and alerting for rapid response.
• Annual review of continuity plans and vendor dependencies.

Takedown and Legal Requests

Preservation is balanced with legal compliance. If APCR receives a substantiated takedown request (e.g., for defamation, privacy, or intellectual property infringement), the matter is reviewed promptly. If removal or redaction is mandated, the public record includes an explanatory notice to maintain transparency, and preservation copies are retained securely for audit purposes where lawful.

Accessibility and Usability Over Time

Ensuring long-term access means maintaining accessibility features. APCR aims to preserve accessible structure and alternative text within PDFs/HTML and encourages authors to supply accessible supplementary materials. When migrating formats, accessibility tags and captions are retained or re-authored to the extent possible.

• Tagged PDFs and semantic HTML headings.
• Alt text for figures; transcripts or captions for multimedia.
• Color-contrast and keyboard navigability in web presentations.

Roles and Responsibilities

Preservation is a shared responsibility across editorial, production, and technical teams. Editorial staff ensure that all components (figures, data statements, supplements) are complete and citable. Production teams validate formats and metadata. Technical teams manage storage, replication, integrity checks, and disaster recovery. Periodic internal audits verify that policy commitments are met.