Archiving Policy
Last Updated: April 2026
ETFLIN is committed to preserving the scholarly record and maintaining long-term access to its published research. This policy establishes the principles, procedures, and responsibilities governing the digital preservation of journal articles, associated publication materials, and relevant scholarly records.
Digital preservation is intended to protect published content against data loss, technical failure, platform migration, service disruption, and changes in publishing infrastructure. ETFLIN uses a combination of external web archiving and internal archival systems and continues to develop its long-term preservation infrastructure. The availability of individual preservation services depends on their operational status and applicable technical arrangements.
Preservation Principles
Long-Term Preservation and Continued Access
ETFLIN seeks to maintain the continued availability, integrity, and citability of its published content beyond the operational lifetime of any individual website or publishing platform. Published articles are treated as enduring records of scholarly communication and are not intentionally removed solely because a journal ceases publication or the publishing platform changes.
ETFLIN recognizes that no single storage system or third-party service can provide an absolute guarantee of permanent accessibility. Accordingly, the journal applies a layered preservation approach combining internal archival practices with external archiving mechanisms, while pursuing additional preservation arrangements where feasible.
In the event of a significant service disruption, technical failure, or cessation of publishing operations, ETFLIN will make reasonable efforts to restore access to preserved content through available archival copies, external preservation services, or alternative access arrangements.
Authenticity and Integrity of the Scholarly Record
Preservation must maintain the authenticity, completeness, and scientific integrity of published content. Archival copies should accurately represent the material originally published, including its bibliographic metadata, associated files, and publication status.
Changes made after publication must be documented through appropriate editorial notices or version updates. Archived material must not be silently altered in a manner that obscures significant changes to the scientific record.
ETFLIN distinguishes between the preservation of published content and editorial decisions concerning its validity. Corrections, expressions of concern, withdrawals, and retractions are handled in accordance with the journal's Correction, Withdrawal, and Retraction Policy.
Redundancy and Resilience
ETFLIN seeks to reduce the risk of permanent data loss by maintaining archival copies independently of the primary publishing environment where technically feasible. External archiving and internal storage serve complementary purposes: external services provide an additional source of access, while internal archival systems support content management and recovery.
The publisher periodically reviews its preservation arrangements and considers additional measures to improve redundancy, data integrity, and recovery capabilities.
Scope of Preserved Content
Published Articles and Bibliographic Records
ETFLIN's primary preservation priority is the final published article, also known as the Version of Record. The preservation framework covers the following materials, subject to their availability within the journal's publishing systems and the capabilities of the applicable archiving mechanism:
The final published article in HTML, PDF, or other supported publication formats.
Article metadata, including titles, authors, affiliations, abstracts, keywords, publication dates, journal information, and persistent identifiers such as DOIs.
Structured metadata in XML format where available.
Journal issue information, tables of contents, and related bibliographic records.
Figures, tables, appendices, and supplementary files published as part of the article.
Formal post-publication notices, including corrections, expressions of concern, and retraction notices, together with their associated article records.
ETFLIN seeks to preserve the relationships between articles and their associated metadata, supplementary materials, and post-publication notices. This helps readers identify the correct publication, retrieve relevant materials, and understand the publication history.
Supplementary Materials and Research Data
Supplementary materials formally published with an article may be included in the journal's archival workflow when they are stored within ETFLIN's publishing infrastructure or otherwise included in the applicable preservation deposit.
Research datasets, software, code, and other research outputs hosted in external repositories remain subject to the policies and preservation arrangements of those repositories. Where appropriate, ETFLIN's article metadata should retain the corresponding links or persistent identifiers to facilitate discovery and retrieval.
ETFLIN does not automatically assume responsibility for preserving every raw dataset, laboratory record, or research file generated during a study. Such materials remain subject to the authors' data management obligations and the applicable requirements described in the Data Availability Statement Policy.
Authors should ensure that references to external datasets and repositories are accurate and that any restrictions on access are clearly disclosed.
Editorial Records and Publication Histories
ETFLIN recognizes that editorial records can provide important evidence of the publication process and support accountability. Its preservation development plan includes consideration of formal peer-review records, manuscript revision histories, and publication logs.
The preservation of such records is distinct from their public availability. Internal editorial records may be retained for audit, dispute resolution, research integrity investigations, and other legitimate publishing purposes, subject to applicable privacy and confidentiality requirements.
Peer-review reports, reviewer identities, confidential correspondence, and other non-public editorial materials will not automatically become publicly accessible merely because they are preserved. Public disclosure will follow the journal's applicable peer-review model and relevant editorial policies.
The scope of editorial-record preservation will be expanded as the necessary technical and governance arrangements become operational.
Preservation Systems and Infrastructure
Internet Archive
ETFLIN uses the Internet Archive as an additional web-archiving mechanism to support the historical accessibility of its journal websites and published content.
Internet Archive captures can provide useful access to earlier representations of web pages and publication records. However, website captures may not preserve every file, interactive feature, metadata element, or external resource associated with a publication. The availability and completeness of individual captures also depend on the capabilities and operation of the service.
Accordingly, Internet Archive is treated as a supplementary preservation mechanism rather than an unconditional guarantee that every published file will be available in full through that service.
Local Archival Systems
ETFLIN maintains local archival and data management systems to support the storage, organization, and recovery of published content and associated records.
The publisher aims to keep archival copies sufficiently separated from the primary publishing environment to reduce the risk that a single technical incident will affect both the live platform and its preserved content. Backup arrangements, access controls, and recovery procedures are subject to periodic review and improvement.
Local archival systems complement external preservation mechanisms and are not intended to serve as the sole long-term preservation strategy.
LOCKSS and Additional Preservation Services
ETFLIN is working toward integration with the LOCKSS digital preservation system. As of the date of this policy, this integration remains in progress and must not be interpreted as an active preservation arrangement until implementation and successful preservation have been confirmed.
Once an external preservation service becomes operational, ETFLIN may identify it as an active component of its preservation framework following verification of the applicable deposit or preservation arrangements.
ETFLIN may adopt additional preservation services or repositories where technically, operationally, and financially feasible. The policy will be updated as necessary to reflect material changes in the services used and their verified operational status.
Indexing, abstracting, metadata aggregation, and general website discovery services are not automatically considered long-term digital preservation systems unless an applicable preservation arrangement has been established.
Archival Workflow and Quality Assurance
Archiving and Updating Published Content
ETFLIN seeks to include published articles and their associated bibliographic records in its archival processes as part of the publication lifecycle. Archiving activities may include preserving publication files, retaining structured metadata, maintaining internal copies, and submitting or making content available to external archiving systems where supported.
When an article is corrected or otherwise subject to a formal post-publication action, the related notice and publication status should be incorporated into the relevant archival records as applicable. The archival process should preserve the relationship between the original publication and subsequent editorial notices.
Material changes to the publishing platform or content management system should be accompanied by appropriate preservation planning to minimize the risk of losing publication files, metadata, or links to previously published content.
File Integrity and Format Management
ETFLIN aims to preserve content in durable, widely readable formats and to retain structured metadata that supports interoperability and future retrieval. PDF and XML are important components of this approach where available. Other formats may be retained when required to preserve the original content or associated research materials.
The publisher will periodically review the integrity and completeness of preserved files using available technical procedures. Where supported by the archival infrastructure, such procedures may include file validation, integrity checks, metadata verification, and comparison with the corresponding publication records.
If corruption, missing content, or a material inconsistency is identified, ETFLIN will seek to recover or replace the affected archival copy using a verified source. Any restoration process must preserve the original scientific content and must not introduce undocumented editorial changes.
Where changes in technology make an archival format difficult to access, ETFLIN may migrate the material to a more sustainable format when feasible. Any such migration should maintain the content's meaning, completeness, bibliographic identity, and publication history.
Metadata and Persistent Identifiers
Accurate metadata is essential for the discovery, retrieval, and citation of preserved publications. ETFLIN seeks to maintain consistency between article landing pages, downloadable publication files, archival copies, and records supplied to relevant scholarly infrastructure providers.
Persistent identifiers, including DOIs, should remain associated with the corresponding publication. When an article's location changes because of a website migration or other infrastructure change, ETFLIN will make reasonable efforts to maintain the appropriate metadata and update destination URLs through the relevant registration or infrastructure provider where possible.
Archival records should preserve sufficient bibliographic information to identify and cite an article even if its original webpage or publishing platform is no longer available.
Access to Archived Content
Public Access and Licensing
Published open-access articles are intended to remain accessible in accordance with their applicable licensing terms. Archiving does not, by itself, introduce an embargo or change the copyright ownership or license associated with an article.
Unless otherwise specified for an individual publication, ETFLIN's articles are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. The rights to reuse and redistribute archived copies remain governed by the applicable license and any lawful restrictions associated with particular materials.
Authors may also deposit permitted versions of their work in institutional or subject repositories in accordance with ETFLIN's Copyright and License Policy. Such deposits complement the publisher's preservation activities but do not replace the need for the publisher to maintain its own archival arrangements.
Access to Internal Records
Not all preserved material is intended for public release. Internal editorial correspondence, confidential peer-review records, personal information, and restricted research materials remain subject to applicable privacy, security, and confidentiality requirements.
Access to these materials will be limited to authorized purposes and personnel. Where a request for access is received, ETFLIN will consider the nature of the records, the purpose of the request, relevant legal obligations, participant confidentiality, and the journal's editorial policies.
The preservation of restricted records must not be interpreted as a commitment to publish or disclose those records.
Continuity of Access and Disaster Recovery
Service Disruptions
Website downtime, technical failures, infrastructure migration, cybersecurity incidents, and disruptions involving third-party providers may temporarily affect access to published materials.
ETFLIN will make reasonable efforts to restore affected services, recover content from available archival copies, and maintain the integrity of the publication record. Recovery activities may include restoring publication files, reconstructing article landing pages, correcting metadata, and re-establishing links to external preservation sources.
The recovery process will prioritize the availability and integrity of published articles, essential bibliographic metadata, and formal post-publication notices.
Journal or Publisher Cessation
If an ETFLIN journal or publishing operation ceases, ETFLIN intends to preserve access to its existing scholarly record through the archival copies and external preservation arrangements available at that time.
Where feasible, the publisher will make reasonable efforts to facilitate continued access to preserved articles and associated metadata through an appropriate alternative platform or preservation service. DOI metadata and destination URLs will be maintained or updated where possible through the relevant infrastructure providers.
The arrangements available after cessation will depend on the preservation systems that are operational, the completeness of the preserved files, and the terms under which external services operate. ETFLIN does not represent that any single third-party service can guarantee permanent access to every item.
Recovery Priorities
In a major data-loss or service-disruption event, recovery efforts should prioritize:
Published articles and their essential metadata.
DOI-linked publication records and article landing information.
Formal corrections, expressions of concern, and retraction notices.
Supplementary files that form part of the published record and remain available in preserved copies.
Other materials, including internal editorial records and supporting administrative files, will be recovered according to their importance, availability, and applicable retention requirements.
Corrections, Retractions, and Version Control
ETFLIN preserves the integrity of the scholarly record by distinguishing between the original Version of Record and subsequent editorial notices or changes.
When a correction, expression of concern, or retraction is issued, the relevant notice should be retained and linked to the affected publication in the journal's records. Available archival copies should reflect the updated publication status or provide a clear link to the applicable notice.
Retracted articles will generally remain accessible with a clear indication of their retracted status, in accordance with ETFLIN's Correction, Withdrawal, and Retraction Policy. Removal or restriction may be considered in exceptional circumstances involving legal obligations, privacy, safety, or other compelling considerations.
A correction or retraction does not justify silently replacing or deleting the historical publication record. Any authorized removal, restriction, or modification must be handled consistently with applicable editorial and legal requirements, with appropriate documentation retained where possible.
Confidentiality, Security, and Data Protection
Preservation activities must respect the confidentiality of unpublished manuscripts, editorial communications, personal information, and restricted research materials.
ETFLIN will manage access to archival systems according to legitimate operational needs and applicable privacy and security requirements. Technical and organizational safeguards should be applied to reduce the risks of unauthorized access, accidental deletion, corruption, and disclosure of restricted information.
The retention and handling of personal information and internal editorial records must remain consistent with ETFLIN's Privacy Policy and applicable legal obligations.
Archival preservation does not override a valid legal restriction, confidentiality obligation, or other applicable requirement governing particular materials. When access to a specific item must be restricted or its public presentation modified, ETFLIN will seek to protect the integrity of the scholarly record to the extent legally and ethically permissible.
Responsibilities and Policy Review
ETFLIN is responsible for overseeing its archival strategy, maintaining appropriate preservation arrangements, and reviewing the continued suitability of its preservation infrastructure.
Editorial personnel are responsible for ensuring that formal post-publication actions are accurately reflected in the publication record. Technical personnel and service providers are responsible for the operational tasks assigned to them under the publisher's applicable arrangements.
ETFLIN will periodically review this policy and its preservation practices, including the status of external services, file integrity procedures, backup arrangements, recovery readiness, and changes in relevant digital preservation standards. Reviews will also consider whether statements about the services used accurately reflect their current operational status.
Material changes in preservation arrangements will be reflected in the policy when necessary. ETFLIN will not describe a planned or incomplete preservation integration as an active service.
Limitations and Contact
ETFLIN is committed to maintaining the long-term accessibility and integrity of its scholarly record. Nevertheless, digital preservation depends on technical infrastructure, external service availability, legal requirements, and the completeness of available archival materials. Consequently, ETFLIN cannot guarantee uninterrupted access to every item at all times or the permanent availability of content through any single external service.
Questions concerning the preservation, availability, or retrieval of ETFLIN publications may be directed to halo@etflin.com.
This policy should be read together with ETFLIN's Copyright and License Policy, Data Availability Statement Policy, Correction, Withdrawal, and Retraction Policy, and Privacy Policy.