Archiving Policy

ARCHIVING & DIGITAL PRESERVATION POLICY

1. Mission, Statement of Intent, and FAIR Principles

  • 1.1. Permanent Availability: The Journal of Management Info (JMI) is committed to the permanent preservation of the scholarly record. JMI recognizes that ensuring the long-term availability and accessibility of published research is a core institutional responsibility to the global management and policy communities.
  • 1.2. Safeguarding against Data Loss: This policy outlines the active measures JMI takes to safeguard its digital content against data loss, software obsolescence, and institutional or publisher changes.
  • 1.3. FAIR Principles Integration: All articles are managed to ensure they remain Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) in perpetuity, published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.
  • SDG Alignment (SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions): Protecting the permanence of scientific findings supports SDG Target 16.10 (ensuring public access to information and protecting fundamental freedoms). It prevents the "silent deletion" of research and guarantees that evidence-based public policies and corporate governance models remain accessible to the public indefinitely.

2. Long-Term Preservation (LPTA) and Permanent Archives

  • 2.1. Dedicated Preservation Networks: Long-term preservation and archiving (LPTA) ensure that JMI’s data is comprehensively backed up in a global network of libraries created by a dedicated digital archiving and preservation service.
  • 2.2. PKP Private LOCKSS Network: Readers Insight Publisher and JMI employ the Public Knowledge Project (PKP) Private LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) network. This decentralized system distributes a secure archive file among participating academic libraries. This allows these libraries to host permanent, digital copies of the journal, ready to be activated to preserve and restore full access if JMI's hosting servers ever go offline.
  • 2.3. CLOCKSS Integration: In addition to LOCKSS, JMI supports Controlled LOCKSS (CLOCKSS) to maintain a dark archive of redundant copies, ensuring absolute preservation safety.
  • SDG Alignment (SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals): Leveraging decentralized international library networks (LOCKSS/CLOCKSS) to preserve administrative science represents a successful global public-private partnership. This shared infrastructure ensures that scientific knowledge remains resilient against regional server failures or geopolitical disruptions.

3. Persistent Identifiers & Crossref DOIs

  • 3.1. Stable Citation Paths: To ensure that published articles remain permanently discoverable, a separate, unique Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is assigned to each published manuscript via Crossref.
  • 3.2. URL Redirection Resilience: The DOI acts as a persistent link to the scholarly Version of Record (VoR). Even if the hosting domain, publisher website, or JMI's underlying technical platform changes, the DOI resolves permanently to the correct, updated location of the scientific paper.
  • SDG Alignment (SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure): Maintaining stable digital infrastructures via DOIs ensures that academic citation networks remain reliable. This allows researchers to track, verify, and build upon previous innovations in organizational strategies without encountering broken links.

4. Author Self-Archiving & Green Open Access Policy

  • 4.1. Liberal Self-Archiving Allowances: JMI and Readers Insight Publisher actively support the Green Open Access model. The publisher has no objection to—and explicitly encourages—authors reprinting, preserving, and sharing their work in institutional repositories or personal archives before or after official publication.
  • 4.2. Version Policies:
    • Preprint Version: Authors are permitted to share their original, non-peer-reviewed draft on recognized preprint servers (such as SSRN or SocArXiv) at any time.
    • Accepted Manuscript (Postprint): Once accepted, authors may deposit their peer-reviewed, corrected draft in their home institution's repository, linking it back to the journal's official homepage.
    • Version of Record (VoR): Authors retain full copyright under the CC BY 4.0 license. They are encouraged to deposit the final publisher-formatted PDF on any academic, personal, or institutional repository immediately upon publication, citing JMI as the original venue of publication.
  • SDG Alignment (SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities): Permitting free self-archiving in localized institutional databases allows universities in lower-income regions to display and utilize their faculties' research without incurring repository licensing fees, reducing global institutional disparities.

5. Research Data Preservation & FAIR Open Science

  • 5.1. Mandatory Data Availability Statement (DAS): JMI is an active supporter of Open Science. Every manuscript must include a mandatory Data Availability Statement detailing where the underlying research data is preserved and how it can be accessed by the community.
  • 5.2. Trusted Public Repositories: JMI recommends archiving datasets in community-recognized, trusted public repositories (such as Zenodo or Figshare). Authors can reference directories like re3data.org or fairsharing.org to identify appropriate archives.
  • 5.3. Retention and File-Size Standards:
    • Retention Period: Authors must commit to preserving their datasets on institutional or lab servers for a minimum of five years post-publication to facilitate replication and scrutiny.
    • Large Datasets: Data files exceeding 250 MB must be hosted on external repositories (e.g., Zenodo) rather than submitted as supplementary journal files.
  • SDG Alignment (SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production): Openly archiving raw and processed research data prevents research duplication. This ensures that academic funding, public resources, and administrative labor are used responsibly, avoiding redundant studies on identical management questions.

6. Code, Algorithm, and AI Asset Preservation

  • 6.1. Mandatory Code Sharing: In alignment with Scopus guidelines for transparency, all author-generated analysis scripts, custom statistical code (e.g., in R or Python), and algorithms must be made publicly available at publication.
  • 6.2. Permanent Code Snapshots: If authors host live code on collaborative sites like GitHub, they must archive a permanent "snapshot" in a repository that issues a persistent DOI (such as Zenodo or Software Heritage). This ensures the exact version of the software used to calculate the study's results is preserved forever.
  • 6.3. AI Prompt Archiving: If Generative AI tools (such as ChatGPT) were utilized to write data-processing scripts or draft sections of the paper, authors must archive the exact prompts and query syntax used. These should be documented within the manuscript's Methods section or a supplementary AI Appendix to maintain reproducibility.
  • SDG Alignment (SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure): Archiving analysis scripts, custom algorithms, and AI prompt histories builds a reliable, reproducible base of strategic management tools. This accelerates technological resilience and process innovations in business and public sector governance globally.

7. Technical Metadata Standards & Archival Updates

  • 7.1. JATS XML Conversion: All published articles are formatted into JATS XML (Journal Article Tag Suite). This machine-readable metadata format ensures that titles, abstracts, keywords, and citations are easily harvested and preserved by indexers like Scopus.
  • 7.2. ORCID Integration: JMI requires ORCID iDs for corresponding authors. These are embedded in the JATS metadata, linking published papers directly to the author’s permanent professional record.
  • 7.3. Amending the Archive: Any corrections, retractions, or expressions of concern issued in accordance with COPE guidelines are published as permanent, indexable notices linked directly to the original Version of Record (VoR). This ensures the historical archive remains completely honest and self-correcting.
  • SDG Alignment (SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions): Utilizing global JATS XML metadata and permanent, linked correction mechanisms maintains a highly transparent, untampered historical record of scientific achievements.