Archived Policy

1. Introduction

Health and Medical Discoveries (HMD) is committed to ensuring the long-term preservation and accessibility of all its published content. This Archived Policy outlines the procedures for archiving, safeguarding, and providing continued access to the journal’s articles and other content, ensuring it remains available to readers, researchers, and institutions for future reference.

2. Digital Archiving

To ensure the longevity and accessibility of the journal's content, all articles published in HMD will be archived in reputable digital repositories and long-term preservation systems. These include, but are not limited to:

  • LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe): A distributed digital preservation system that ensures redundancy and availability of content.
  • Internet Archive: A widely recognized repository that maintains digital copies of articles and makes them accessible to the global community.
  • DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals): A global platform that provides open-access access to scientific articles, ensuring they are visible to a wide academic audience.
  • National and Institutional Repositories: HMD will deposit articles in relevant institutional or national archives, complying with requirements from funding bodies or institutions.

3. Backup and Redundancy

HMD will ensure that regular backups of the journal’s content are made to prevent data loss. These backups will be stored securely in multiple locations, providing redundancy in case of technical failure or unforeseen circumstances. The backups will be updated regularly to include the latest published content and maintain data integrity.

4. Long-Term Availability

All published articles will remain available for free through the journal’s website and in the archiving platforms mentioned above. We are committed to maintaining the articles' accessibility without any time limits. If HMD discontinues, all published content will continue to be accessible through the chosen archiving systems.

5. Metadata Preservation

In addition to preserving the full-text articles, HMD will ensure that metadata, such as author names, article titles, keywords, abstracts, and citations, is stored in international metadata repositories. This will guarantee proper indexing and discovery of published articles through search engines and databases, thus enhancing the visibility of the journal’s content.

6. File Formats

To ensure long-term accessibility, HMD will provide articles in widely accepted and sustainable file formats, including:

  • PDF for the final version of articles
  • XML for metadata preservation
  • HTML for online viewing and referencing

These formats ensure compatibility with current and future digital systems, facilitating ease of access and use across various platforms and devices.

7. Withdrawal and Retraction

In cases where an article needs to be withdrawn or retracted due to ethical concerns (e.g., plagiarism, data falsification), the journal will ensure that a clear and visible notice is added to the archived version of the article. This notice will indicate the reason for the retraction or withdrawal and will remain associated with the article in the digital archives to maintain transparency and integrity.

8. Licensing and Copyright

All articles published in HMD are made available under an open-access license, typically a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license unless otherwise specified. This ensures that readers can freely access, download, and share articles while properly attributing the original authors and HMD.

9. Rights and Responsibilities

Authors submitting to HMD agree to grant the journal the right to archive and distribute their articles in digital repositories as part of the open-access model. Authors retain copyright over their works, but they agree to the journal’s archival practices to ensure broad dissemination and long-term availability.

10. Archiving Rights

HMD reserves the right to archive content in additional platforms, repositories, or digital systems as necessary to ensure ongoing access and discoverability of published content. Authors will be informed of any significant changes to archiving procedures.

11. Policy Review

This Archived Policy will be reviewed periodically to ensure it aligns with the best practices in academic publishing and digital preservation. Any updates or significant changes to this policy will be communicated to authors, reviewers, and stakeholders in a timely manner.