Archive Policy

The Journal of Smart Lean Manufacturing and Process Enhancement is committed to ensuring the long-term preservation and accessibility of all published content. Our archiving policy is designed to safeguard scholarly materials from data loss, maintain the integrity of the academic record, and ensure continued access for researchers, institutions, and the wider public.

1. Digital Preservation and Repository

To guarantee the long-term availability of all published articles, the journal utilizes multiple archiving and backup strategies, including:

  • Institutional Repositories: All articles are deposited in institutional and digital repositories to ensure redundancy and accessibility.
  • LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) and CLOCKSS (Controlled LOCKSS): The journal participates in these community-driven preservation initiatives, which create distributed archives at multiple locations to prevent data loss.
  • PKP Preservation Network (PN): The journal is integrated with the PKP PN, which provides free preservation services for Open Journal Systems (OJS)-based journals.
  • DOI and Metadata Indexing: Every published article is assigned a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) and indexed in major scholarly databases, ensuring permanent citation and retrieval.

2. Open Access and Self-Archiving Policy

As an open-access journal, The Journal of Smart Lean Manufacturing and Process Enhancement allows authors to self-archive their published articles in personal, institutional, or disciplinary repositories. Authors are permitted to:

  • Deposit preprint versions (before peer review) in open-access repositories with a proper disclaimer.
  • Archive postprint versions (after peer review and revisions) with appropriate attribution to the published version.
  • Share the publisher’s version (final PDF) in institutional repositories or personal websites, provided that proper citation and journal links are included.

3. Retention and Access Policy

  • All published content remains permanently accessible through the journal's website, repositories, and indexing databases.
  • The journal ensures that all metadata, abstracts, and full-text articles are retrievable even if the journal ceases publication, through archiving in trusted third-party platforms.

4. Content Migration and Format Preservation

To prevent technological obsolescence, the journal implements strategies for content migration:

  • Articles are stored in multiple formats (e.g., PDF, XML, HTML) to ensure compatibility with future digital standards.
  • Regular updates and system migrations are conducted to ensure accessibility regardless of changes in publishing technologies.

5. Policy on Journal Discontinuation

In the unlikely event that The Journal of Smart Lean Manufacturing and Process Enhancement discontinues publication, all published content will remain accessible through:

  • Institutional and third-party digital archives.
  • Collaboration with scholarly organizations that maintain archival services for defunct journals.

This archiving policy ensures that all published research remains discoverable, citable, and accessible to the academic community and beyond for future reference.