Digital preservation policies

The journal, through digital preservation methods, ensures the intellectual content of electronic archival documents for long periods of time, maintaining their integrity, authenticity, inalterability, originality, reliability and accessibility.

Differences between preservation and backups

It is important that authors interested in publishing in the journal know the difference between digital preservation and backup.

Backup copies are a protection mechanism against unforeseen events such as disk failure or data loss due to exceptional situations such as blackouts, server disconnections, etc. It basically protects the information published on the server (digital resources plus catalog information) and digital resources in the process of being edited, in a comprehensive and systematic manner.

For its part, digital preservation is not concerned with backing up server data or daily work materials, but with safeguarding the high-quality digital resources that will be needed in the future. The preservation copies usually consist of a comprehensive recording of the material annually on media other than the work platforms.

In both cases, data integrity control mechanisms are used at the time of making the copies, using redundancy algorithms that verify that the data is kept as it has been recorded.

Definition of preservation policies 

The magazine has diagnosed the possible causes of defects in digital information or loss of data such as: management errors and negligence, technical and mechanical failures, operator errors, viruses, unauthorized and undocumented changes, obsolescence or incompatibility of the software, program loss, incomplete metadata, information aging. On the other hand, it has developed a digital preservation strategy that integrates the following procedures: 

Storage: Digital preservation is established as the responsibility and commitment of all personnel involved in editorial management. Self-documentation: Starting from the coding of the preserved information, without reference to external documentation. 

Self-sufficiency: Dependencies on systems, data or documentation are minimized. Migration: Information is converted to new formats, which is a measure against obsolescence. 

Digital formats: Information is stored in formats that are widely used today. This increases the probability that when a format becomes obsolete, there are still programs to convert it. 

Digital archeology: A process of information recovery is applied from damaged, fragmented or archaic data sources.

 It is guaranteed that there is more than one copy on the editorial work computers and another on the server of the Centro de Investigaciones HIdráulicas.

Every five years the data is transferred to new storage media. The preserved information is also encapsulated along with descriptive metadata. In summary, the journal Ingeniería Hidráulica y Ambiental carries out systematic preservation actions, such as: data rejuvenation, consistency checks, migration, emulation, preservation of technology and digital archeology.