Current status, stated plainly
Peer Academics is not enrolled in any digital preservation network. It does not participate in the PKP Preservation Network, CLOCKSS, LOCKSS, or Portico, and it has no agreement with any other archiving service. Nothing published by this journal is currently held by a third-party archive, because nothing has yet been published. The journal states this rather than listing networks it hopes to join as though it had joined them.
What exists now: the Publisher's own backups
Preservation at present rests entirely on backups taken by the Publisher of the two things that constitute the journal — the database, which holds submissions, editorial records, and published metadata, and the file store, which holds manuscripts, galleys, figures, and supplementary files. The arrangement is:
- backups are taken on an automated schedule, not by hand and not on request;
- the backups are held on the same server as the live system. There is no offsite copy yet, so the loss of that machine would destroy the live data and the backups with it. Replication to separate, encrypted storage is an outstanding item, and this page says so until it is done;
- backups are verified by test restoration — a backup that has never been restored is not treated as a backup;
- backups contain personal data and are handled under the Privacy Statement, with the same access controls as the live system.
Backups of this kind protect against data corruption, accidental deletion, and operator error. They do not protect against the loss of the machine that holds them, and they do not protect against the Publisher ceasing to operate. They are not equivalent to independent preservation: a copy held on the same server, by the same organization that runs the journal, is a single point of failure. That is why the journal states the position here, and why enrollment is planned rather than optional.
What must happen before the first article
The Publisher will enroll the journal in a recognized digital preservation network before the first article is published. When that is done, this page will name the network, state what it covers, and give the date from which coverage runs. Until this page names a network, assume none.
Identifiers and stable links
The journal has no DOI prefix and no Crossref membership, so an article's URL is its identifier. The Publisher therefore commits that article URLs are not changed once published; if the site is ever restructured or moved, the old addresses will redirect to the new ones. Article metadata is exposed for harvesting through the journal's OAI-PMH interface, so third parties can index and mirror the metadata independently of the journal.
Permanence of published content
A published article is not removed, edited in place, or replaced. Errors are handled by publishing a separate, linked correction or retraction notice, leaving the original readable; see Corrections and Retractions. Content is withdrawn from view only where the Publisher is legally obliged to do so or where leaving it available would cause serious harm, and in that case a record remains at the article's address stating that the item was removed, by whom, and why.
If the journal ceases publication
If Peer Academics stops publishing, the Publisher will keep the published content available at its existing addresses for as long as it is able, and will seek to transfer the archive to a preservation service or another publisher able to maintain it. This commitment is recorded here so that authors and libraries can hold the Publisher to it.
What you should do in the meantime
Deposit your accepted manuscript in your institutional or subject repository. That deposit is, at present, the most robust independent copy of your work associated with this journal, and it is permitted immediately and without embargo — see Repository and Self-Archiving. Librarians and funders assessing the journal against a preservation requirement should read this page as it stands and not assume forthcoming enrollment.
Questions about preservation go to [email protected].