Preservation & DOI

The International Center for Promoting Knowledge (ICPK) maintains the identifiers and retention practices behind the published record of its journals. This page explains ICPK’s approach to DOI registration and digital preservation, including ISSN registration, Crossref DOI assignment, metadata deposit, correction and retraction linking, journal archiving, and the present limits of its preservation arrangements.

ICPK assigns a Crossref-registered DOI to every published article and deposits the article’s metadata when it is published. ICPK is a direct Crossref member: DOI registration is handled through ICPK’s own membership rather than through a sponsoring organisation, intermediary, or registration agent.

ISSN registration

Each ICPK journal has a registered International Standard Serial Number (ISSN). Separate print and online ISSNs are registered where applicable. The identifiers relevant to an individual title are published on that journal’s about page, allowing readers, authors, librarians, and cataloguers to distinguish the journal and its formats accurately.

An ISSN identifies the continuing publication as a whole. It does not identify an individual article. Article-level identification is provided through DOI registration.

Crossref DOI registration

Every article published by an ICPK journal receives a Crossref DOI. Each journal publishes its own DOI prefix, and the DOI assigned to an article forms part of that journal’s permanent scholarly record. DOI registration takes place at publication. Once assigned, a DOI is never reused for another work and is never reassigned.

A DOI keeps resolving to the article even if the site structure or hosting changes, which an ordinary URL does not guarantee.

That persistence depends on maintaining the DOI record and its destination. ICPK therefore treats DOI registration as an ongoing recordkeeping responsibility rather than as a decorative label. The DOI should be used when citing or linking to the version of record.

Deposit with Crossref is currently carried out directly by ICPK staff at the point of publication rather than through an automated pipeline. ICPK is developing automated deposit as part of its ongoing platform work; until that is complete, the manual process above is followed for every published article.

Metadata deposited at publication

When an article is published, ICPK deposits bibliographic metadata with Crossref. The deposited record includes the article title, authors, affiliations, abstract, publication date, journal title, volume, issue, page range, and reference list where available.

This structured metadata allows an article to be discovered, linked, and correctly cited by other publishers, indexing services, and reference managers. It also helps distinguish the article from similarly titled works and connects citations to a stable version of record. Metadata deposit does not, by itself, amount to inclusion in any particular abstracting or indexing database.

Where a published article is later corrected or retracted, the relevant notice is registered against the DOI record. This allows information about the correction or retraction to travel with the article’s bibliographic record rather than remaining visible only on a single webpage. ICPK’s procedures for issuing, labelling, and linking such notices are set out in its Corrections & Retractions policy.

Current journal archiving policy

ICPK intends published articles to remain available indefinitely, including articles in back issues. Its present retention arrangements use a three-layer backup model: the primary production copy on ICPK's hosting server, a separate local file-storage backup, and a further copy replicated to independent cloud object storage. Database records are backed up under versioned identifiers across multiple local backup locations in addition to the file-based copies. Published PDF files are held alongside the corresponding online records, and archives remain freely accessible to readers without a reader-side charge.

This layered backup model supports operational continuity and recovery, but it is not equivalent to preservation by an independent specialist archive. ICPK is not currently enrolled in CLOCKSS, LOCKSS, Portico, or the PKP Preservation Network. ICPK is in the process of evaluating and setting up integration with one of these recognised preservation networks, and states its current, pre-enrollment status plainly so that authors and librarians can assess the present arrangements accurately.

Participation in a recognised preservation service forms part of ICPK's development plan and is actively being worked on. No implementation date is attached to that plan, and this statement should not be read as a promise that external preservation coverage is already in place.

Authors may also self-archive the published version in any repository at any time without seeking permission. They are asked only to link to the version of record using its DOI. Further information about access, author rights, and the publisher’s licensing model is available in Open Access & Licensing.

Information for libraries and institutions

ISSNs, DOI records, deposited metadata, freely accessible back issues, and clear statements about retention help libraries evaluate and describe ICPK journals. They do not replace independent preservation coverage, nor do they constitute an indexing claim. Libraries seeking a concise account of access and institutional use should consult For Librarians & Institutions.

Indexing status

ICPK journals are not listed in DOAJ and are not indexed in Scopus, Web of Science, EBSCO, Index Copernicus, Ulrich’s, or comparable databases. If an individual journal has applied to a service, that information is stated on the journal’s own indexing page; an application must not be understood as acceptance or current coverage.

Authors and librarians should evaluate each ICPK journal through its published policies, editorial structure, documented processes, and published content rather than through unsupported indexing claims. DOI and ISSN registration provide verifiable identifiers, but neither is a substitute for independent indexing or preservation.