LITERATURE: Language and Literature maintains an electronic filing and digital archiving policy to support the secure, systematic, and sustainable management of manuscripts, peer-review records, editorial correspondence, publication files, and related academic documentation. The journal utilizes the Open Journal Systems (OJS) platform as its primary editorial workflow environment, supported by secure institutional cloud storage and backup repositories administered in coordination with the Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teacher Training, UIN Sultanah Nahrasiyah Lhokseumawe. This policy aligns with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Core Practices and best practices in academic journal governance.
Open Journal Systems (OJS) serves as the journal’s primary platform for managing electronic submissions and end-to-end editorial workflows. All manuscript submissions, supplementary files, editorial decisions, peer-review reports, revision rounds, and correspondence must be recorded directly through OJS.
Authorized editorial personnel access, evaluate, and track files strictly in accordance with assigned editorial roles and system permissions. Authors are required to submit manuscripts and accompanying materials exclusively through the official LITERATURE: Language and Literature OJS submission portal, unless an alternative procedure has been formally authorized by the Editor-in-Chief.
In addition to live records maintained within OJS, the journal utilizes dedicated institutional cloud storage and server repositories as a secondary archive and secure backup system. Depending on operational requirements, archived records include:
Original unedited manuscript submissions.
Anonymized review copies and peer-review evaluation sheets.
Editorial decision letters and author revision notes.
Copyedited files, layout proofs, and final published PDF galleys.
Associated metadata, publication agreements, and ethics statements.
This secondary repository safeguards business continuity, prevents data loss in the event of hardware or server disruption, and guarantees the long-term preservation of the editorial audit trail. All stored assets comply with university information security standards and strict editorial confidentiality requirements.
OJS and the secondary archival storage serve distinct, complementary functions:
OJS manages live submissions, peer-review coordination, workflow progression, and public dissemination.
The Archival Repository maintains structured offline/cloud redundancy, permanent records, and disaster-recovery snapshots.
Placing a file in secondary storage does not supersede live records within OJS. The definitive published version of record (Version of Record) and its bibliographic metadata remain accessible to the public via the journal’s official OJS website. Archival copies serve to safeguard and verify, rather than replace, the official published record.
To ensure traceability and eliminate ambiguity, electronic files must be cataloged systematically across both OJS and internal archives. File naming conventions should reflect the submission ID, shortened manuscript title or author identifier (where blinding is not required), document stage, and date. Core Practice
Revised manuscripts must be uploaded through the designated OJS revision portal. Internal archive records must accurately distinguish working drafts from final approved galleys to prevent accidental publication of uncorrected versions.
Access to the journal's OJS management interface and supplementary archival storage is strictly governed by the principle of least privilege:
Access is granted solely to authorized editors, section editors, reviewers, production layout editors, and technical administrators based on operational roles.
Unpublished manuscripts, reviewer identities, referee remarks, and confidential editorial deliberative records are treated as strictly confidential and must never be shared beyond authorized personnel.
All users must safeguard their login credentials and prevent unauthorized third-party access.
LITERATURE: Language and Literature, alongside the technical infrastructure team of UIN Sultanah Nahrasiyah Lhokseumawe, establishes regular backup protocols for database records and file directories.
Routine backups encompass the OJS MySQL database, the OJS files_dir repository, and journal system configurations.
Backups are mirrored across secure physical or cloud locations geographically separate from the live hosting environment to prevent catastrophic data loss.
Periodic restoration tests are conducted by technical administrators to verify data integrity and recovery readiness.
Editorial and technical administrators routinely verify that stored files remain intact, complete, uncorrupted, and legible over time. When migrating platforms, updating OJS versions, or transferring server environments, comprehensive pre- and post-migration validation checks are executed to ensure that submission histories, review attachments, and published archives retain their original metadata associations.
Published Articles: Retained permanently on the journal website and mirrored across designated national and international digital preservation repositories (such as Garba Rujukan Digital / Garuda, institutional repositories, and digital archives).
Editorial & Peer Review Records: Retained electronically for a minimum period of 5 (five) years to ensure accountability, resolve post-publication inquiries, and address potential ethical concerns in compliance with COPE standards.
Records related to formal disputes, retractions, or corrections are archived indefinitely to preserve scholarly integrity.
Editor-in-Chief & Managing Editors: Responsible for enforcing workflow integrity, overseeing file-naming discipline, maintaining editorial confidentiality, and ensuring version control across all active volumes.
Technical & System Administrators: Responsible for server uptime, security patching, storage allocation, automated backup execution, and user privilege management.
Section Editors & Reviewers: Obligated to handle all assigned files within the secure confines of the OJS platform and delete downloaded confidential evaluation copies once their review duties conclude.
Authors: Responsible for uploading complete, virus-free, and correctly designated files directly via the OJS portal.
This Electronic Filing and Digital Archiving Policy is periodically reviewed by the editorial team and the Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teacher Training, UIN Sultanah Nahrasiyah Lhokseumawe. Adjustments are introduced as necessary to incorporate advancements in OJS architecture, university IT mandates, or national accreditation criteria (ARJUNA / SINTA).
