Digital Archiving & Preservation Policy

Sana’a University Journal of Applied Sciences and Technology (SUJAST) recognizes that the permanent preservation and future accessibility of scholarly research is a fundamental responsibility of academic publishing. This policy outlines the concrete measures and systems we employ to ensure the long-term survival and usability of all published content.

1. Commitment to Digital Preservation

SUJAST is committed to ensuring that the digital scholarly record remains secure, authentic, and accessible to future generations of researchers, regardless of technological change. We view archiving not as a backup, but as an active, ongoing process of digital stewardship.

2. Primary Archiving Methods

To fulfill this commitment, the journal utilizes a multi-layered archiving strategy:

• Institutional Repository: All published content is permanently deposited and maintained in Sana’a University’s Institutional Digital Repository. This serves as the primary, locally controlled archive.
• Dedicated Preservation Services: SUJAST participates in global digital preservation systems to guarantee redundancy and independence. Our content is archived with:
• LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe): A decentralized, community-based preservation system that allows libraries to create persistent caches of journal content.
• CLOCKSS (Controlled LOTS of Copies Keep Stuff Safe): A dark archive that preserves content in multiple global locations and triggers content release in the event of a publication’s permanent discontinuation.
• National & International Databases: Articles are indexed and archived by multiple abstracting and indexing services, disciplinary repositories, and library consortia, providing additional, distributed points of preservation.

3. File Formats and Standards

• Primary Format: The final, canonical version of each article is preserved in PDF/A format, an ISO-standardized version of PDF designed for long-term archiving.
• Metadata: Complete bibliographic metadata for all articles (including titles, authors, abstracts, keywords, and references) is stored in standardized, machine-readable formats (e.g., XML) to ensure future discoverability.

4. Accessibility of Archived Content

• Permanent Access: The journal guarantees that all archived articles will remain freely accessible in perpetuity, adhering to our open-access principles.
• Persistent Identifiers: Every article is assigned a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) through a registration agency (e.g., Crossref). This DOI provides a permanent, resolvable link to the article, regardless of changes to the journal’s website URL structure.
• Post-Cessation Plan: In the unlikely event that SUJAST ceases publication, our participation in CLOCKSS ensures that the complete digital archive will be made openly available to the public.

5. Responsibilities

• Journal’s Responsibility: SUJAST is responsible for the initial deposit of content into the preservation systems and for maintaining accurate, preserved metadata.
• Publisher/University’s Role: Sana’a University, as the publisher, provides the necessary infrastructure and support for the institutional repository and sustains membership in external preservation networks.

6. For Authors and Readers

• Author Archiving (Self-Archiving): Authors are strongly encouraged to deposit the final published PDF in their personal, institutional, or subject-based repositories (e.g., ResearchGate, arXiv), in accordance with our licensing policy (CC BY 4.0).
• Accessing Archives: Readers can access archived content through:
1. The Journal’s Website (current and back issues).
2. The Sana’a University Institutional Repository.
3. The LOCKSS/CLOCKSS portals (primarily for library and preservation access).
4. Various indexing databases where the journal is listed.

7. Contact

For questions regarding the archiving of a specific article or technical aspects of this policy, please contact the editorial office at: [editor.sujast@su.edu.ye].