Archiving Policy

COMMUNIA – Journal of Community Engagement and Development is committed to ensuring the long-term preservation, accessibility, and integrity of all published scholarly content.

The journal recognizes digital preservation as an essential component of responsible scholarly publishing and maintains appropriate mechanisms to protect published content against data loss, technical failure, discontinuation of the journal, or other circumstances that may affect access to the journal's content.

1. Digital Preservation

COMMUNIA maintains a digital archiving and preservation policy to ensure that published articles and associated scholarly records remain accessible over the long term.

The journal's preservation strategy is designed to protect:

  • published articles;

  • article metadata;

  • bibliographic information;

  • publication dates;

  • author information;

  • abstracts;

  • references; and

  • other essential scholarly records.

The journal seeks to maintain the integrity and authenticity of the published version of each article throughout its preservation period.

2. PKP Preservation Network

COMMUNIA supports digital preservation through the PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN), where available and technically enabled.

The PKP Preservation Network is designed to provide long-term preservation for scholarly content published through Open Journal Systems (OJS). It uses distributed preservation technology based on the LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) principle.

Through this mechanism, journal content can be preserved independently from the journal's primary website and hosting environment.

3. LOCKSS-Based Preservation

COMMUNIA supports the use of LOCKSS-based digital preservation to reduce the risk of permanent loss of journal content.

The LOCKSS approach enables participating libraries and preservation partners to maintain distributed copies of digital scholarly content for preservation and restoration purposes.

This distributed preservation strategy provides an additional layer of protection in the event of:

  • server failure;

  • data corruption;

  • technical disruption;

  • website migration;

  • hosting failure;

  • cybersecurity incidents;

  • accidental deletion; or

  • discontinuation of the journal's primary publishing platform.

4. Long-Term Accessibility

COMMUNIA is committed to maintaining continued access to published articles.

The journal's digital preservation strategy aims to ensure that published content remains accessible even if the journal experiences changes in:

  • website infrastructure;

  • hosting provider;

  • publishing platform;

  • technical systems;

  • editorial management; or

  • publishing operations.

Persistent article identifiers, including Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) where assigned, are used to support the stable identification and discoverability of published scholarly works.

5. Backup and Data Security

COMMUNIA maintains appropriate backup procedures for its journal website, publication database, and scholarly content.

Backup and security measures are intended to reduce the risk of:

  • accidental data loss;

  • hardware failure;

  • software failure;

  • unauthorized access;

  • malicious attacks;

  • corruption of digital files; and

  • other technical incidents.

Where technically feasible, backups are maintained separately from the primary publishing environment.

6. Preservation in the Event of Journal Discontinuation

If COMMUNIA ceases publication or the journal's primary publishing platform becomes permanently unavailable, the journal will seek to preserve and maintain access to its previously published scholarly content through established digital preservation mechanisms.

The journal intends to ensure that the scholarly record remains available even if normal journal operations are discontinued.

Preserved content may include the published version of articles and associated metadata necessary to identify and retrieve the scholarly record.

7. Author Self-Archiving

COMMUNIA supports responsible self-archiving and the dissemination of published research.

Authors are permitted to deposit and share their published articles in:

  • institutional repositories;

  • subject or disciplinary repositories;

  • university repositories;

  • personal or institutional websites;

  • academic profiles; and

  • other legitimate scholarly repositories.

Because COMMUNIA operates under a full open access model and publishes articles under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license, authors may share and reuse their published work subject to the terms of that license.

No embargo is imposed on the self-archiving of published articles.

8. Preservation of the Version of Record

The version of record published by COMMUNIA is considered the authoritative published version of an article.

The journal aims to preserve the version of record together with its associated metadata, DOI, publication information, and other bibliographic records.

Any post-publication correction, retraction, or editorial notice will be linked to the original publication where technically possible to maintain the integrity of the scholarly record.

9. Digital Preservation and Open Access

Digital preservation supports the journal's commitment to full open access.

Preservation mechanisms are intended not only to protect the journal's content but also to ensure that scholarly works remain accessible to researchers, practitioners, community organizations, policymakers, educational institutions, and the wider public.

COMMUNIA seeks to maintain long-term access to scholarly knowledge in accordance with its Open Access Policy.

10. Preservation Services

COMMUNIA may use or participate in recognized digital preservation services and infrastructure, including:

  • PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN);

  • LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe);

  • CLOCKSS, where applicable;

  • institutional or national digital repositories;

  • trusted third-party preservation services; and

  • other recognized long-term digital preservation systems.

The journal may update or expand its preservation mechanisms as appropriate to ensure the continued security, accessibility, and integrity of its scholarly content.

11. Archiving Statement

COMMUNIA – Journal of Community Engagement and Development is committed to the long-term preservation of its scholarly content.

The journal uses appropriate digital preservation and backup mechanisms to safeguard published articles and associated metadata. Where technically available and enabled, the journal supports preservation through the PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN) and LOCKSS-based infrastructure.

The journal also supports author self-archiving through institutional and subject repositories without an embargo, subject to the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license.

COMMUNIA will continue to review and improve its digital preservation strategy to ensure the long-term accessibility, integrity, and availability of its published scholarly record.