Digital Preservation and Archiving

Digital Preservation and Long-Term Archiving Policy

1. Commitment to Permanent Accessibility

ETHIOINQUIRY is committed to ensuring the permanent availability and retrievability of all published content. The scholarly record must persist beyond the operational lifespan of any individual journal. To this end, the journal participates in at least one recognized digital preservation program.

2. Archiving Arrangements

ETHIOINQUIRY archives all published content through the following mechanisms:

  • CLOCKSS (Controlled Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe): A not-for-profit archive providing triggered access in the event of journal failure.
  • LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe): A distributed preservation network maintained by participating libraries worldwide.
  • PKP Preservation Network: For journals hosted on the Open Journal Systems (OJS) platform.
  • National Archive Deposit: Content is deposited with a designated national library or repository as required under applicable national regulation.

3. Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs)

All published articles, corrections, retractions, and expressions of concern are assigned a persistent Digital Object Identifier (DOI) through Crossref. DOIs are registered at the time of publication and are maintained in perpetuity. Authors must use DOIs rather than standard URLs wherever available.

4. Crossmark Policy

ETHIOINQUIRY implements Crossmark on all published HTML and PDF versions of articles. Crossmark allows readers to verify at any time whether the version they are reading is current or whether corrections, retractions, or expressions of concern have been subsequently applied. Editors are responsible for ensuring that Crossmark notifications are updated promptly whenever the status of an article changes.

5. Metadata Standards

Bibliographic metadata for all published articles — including retracted and removed articles — is retained in perpetuity. Metadata is deposited with Crossref and complies with applicable metadata standards (Dublin Core, JATS XML) to facilitate indexing, preservation, and discovery across international scholarly databases.