Archiving Policy

Georgian Medical Journal · Publication Policy

Archiving & Digital Preservation Policy

Public Health Institute of Georgia (PHIG) · COPE · Crossref DOI prefix: 10.66636 · CLOCKSS · PKP PN · CC BY 4.0

The Georgian Medical Journal (GMJ) is committed to the long-term digital preservation of all published content. This policy ensures permanent accessibility, citability, and integrity of the scholarly record in accordance with international standards established by COPE, DOAJ, Crossref, PKP, CLOCKSS, and LOCKSS.

Authors are permitted to deposit the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) and the Version of Record (VoR) immediately upon publication, without embargo, under CC BY 4.0.

What We Preserve

— Version of Record (VoR): the final, copy-edited, typeset PDF/HTML and all associated metadata.
— Supplementary materials: datasets, code, appendices, figures, and multimedia where provided.
— Editorial notices: corrections, expressions of concern, and retractions — each with its own DOI and bidirectional links to the VoR.
— Structured metadata: bibliographic records in Dublin Core, JATS XML, and Crossref-compatible formats for all published items.

Persistent Identifiers & DOI Registration

Phase 1 — Zenodo/DataCite (5 January 2025 – 8 April 2026)

DOIs issued via Zenodo (CERN/OpenAIRE) and registered through DataCite. All Phase 1 DOIs remain permanently valid. Example: doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19053394

Phase 2 — Crossref (from 9 April 2026)

GMJ became a full Crossref member on 9 April 2026 and now assigns DOIs under prefix 10.66636, enabling direct integration with global citation networks and major indexing databases including DOAJ, Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed Central.

GMJ uses Crossmark to communicate post-publication updates — corrections, retractions, and expressions of concern — directly within the DOI record, providing readers with real-time notification of any changes to published content.

Archiving Networks & Redundancy

— PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN) — distributed LOCKSS-based archiving within the OJS ecosystem.
— CLOCKSS — controlled digital dark archive at twelve geographically distributed research library nodes worldwide.
— Zenodo (CERN) — perpetual preservation of articles published through 8 April 2026.
— Crossref metadata registry — structured bibliographic metadata for all articles from 9 April 2026, accessible to global harvesters and indexers.
— Geographically distributed server infrastructure — mirrored copies with frequent automated backups.

Author Self-Archiving Rights

Authors may deposit the AAM and VoR without embargo in institutional or subject repositories, personal academic profiles, or preprint servers, provided the CC BY 4.0 licence and the published DOI are clearly cited. GMJ supports full green open access.

Access and Retrieval

— All archived content is open access — no paywalls, registration, or access fees.
— Machine-readable metadata including licence information, funding statements, and ORCID identifiers is exposed at article level.
— OAI-PMH endpoint: gmj.ge/index.php/pub/oai

Fixity, Integrity & Audits

— Fixity checks: routine cryptographic verification (SHA-256) to detect and correct file corruption.
— Content audits: scheduled verification of file readability, DOI resolution, and metadata completeness.
— Disaster recovery: off-site snapshots and geographically redundant backups enable full restoration following regional or platform failures.

Standards & Interoperability

— Persistent identifiers: every citable item receives a DOI; authors encouraged to provide validated ORCID iDs.
— Metadata formats: Dublin Core, JATS XML, and Crossref deposit XML.
— Preferred preservation formats: PDF/A for documents; TIFF/PNG for images; CSV/JSON for datasets; JATS XML for structured article metadata.
— Open citations: GMJ supports the Initiative for Open Citations (I4OC), making reference metadata openly available via Crossref.

Versioning and Permanence

— The Version of Record is permanent. Errors are addressed via a Correction Notice with its own DOI, linked bidirectionally to the original VoR.
— Retraction Notices are issued where findings are unreliable or unethical. Retracted articles remain online with clear labelling and a linked notice.
— Crossmark ensures readers receive real-time notification of an article's current status.
— Historical metadata and prior versions of supplementary files are retained for provenance where applicable.

Format Migration

If archival formats become obsolete, GMJ will migrate content to contemporary, standards-compliant formats while preserving original files and full metadata for provenance and auditability.

Text and Data Mining (TDM)

Under CC BY 4.0, text and data mining of GMJ content is permitted for any lawful purpose with appropriate attribution. Third-party material included within articles is subject to its original stated rights.

Continuity of Operations

GMJ maintains a succession and continuity plan ensuring that, in the event of platform migration, editorial transition, or journal discontinuation, all preserved content remains accessible through Crossref, PKP PN, CLOCKSS, and Zenodo partner networks.

DOIs issued under prefix 10.66636 remain resolvable under Crossref infrastructure regardless of the journal's primary hosting arrangement.

Policy Review

This policy is reviewed annually and updated to reflect community best practices, advances in digital preservation technology, and changes in the journal's indexing and infrastructure status.

Georgian Medical Journal (GMJ) · Published by the Public Health Institute of Georgia (PHIG) · DOI prefix: 10.66636 · Open Access · CC BY 4.0 · editor@gmj.ge · gmj.ge