Archiving, Repository and Data Sharing Policy

• Archiving plays crucial role in ensuring long-term preservation and accessibility of scholarly works, especially in cases where publishing of a journal / publication has ceased. In such circumstances, research articles and data contained within it, are at risk of being lost or inaccessible to future researchers, which ultimately can hinder the progress and continuity of knowledge.
• By archiving, scholarly works are safe-guarded and are made perpetually available. This process involves capturing, organizing, and storing the contents of the journal/publication in a secure manner.
• It also involves cataloguing of archived materials to ensure efficient retrieval, thereby resulting in expansion of reach, usage and consequently impact of the scholarly work.
• Metadata, such as name of author/s, publication date, keywords, and abstract, are typically included to facilitate discovery and categorization of archived works.
• Types of Archiving :
  • Publisher Archiving : Here, the journal publisher maintains digital repositories to store and organize the published articles.
  • Dark Archiving : Here, a third party maintains an online archiving repository. Its content becomes available to public (open access) in response to a ‘trigger event’ such as confirmation of a journal’s permanent cessation.
  • Public Archiving : Contrary to dark archive, public archives are accessible by users. These archives provide various avenues for public access, including pre-print servers, public archive databases, and institutional repositories.

• Social Science Chronicle has decided to adopt CLOCKSS (a dark archiving repository) for archiving its published manuscripts.
• By preferring CLOCKSS, the journal affirms its commitment for ensuring reliable archiving of its scholarly contents, even in the event of cessation of publication by the journal.
• CLOCKSS utilizes the globally recognized LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) technology to ensure long-term preservation and accessibility of scholarly contents, preserving content in 12 archival nodes located at leading research libraries around the world and several servers globally, thereby safeguarding against potential disruptions.

JOURNAL’S REPOSITORY POLICY

• Authors who publish in Social Science Chronicle retain full unrestricted freedom to share their work on any platform, including institutional repositories, and personal website. It unequivocally applies to submitted version, accepted version (author accepted manuscript) and published version (version of record) of scholarly work, without any embargo period.
• Once published, author/s also enjoy the right to store, re-produce, and utilize their scholarly work in any manner as deemed fit, including formats such as online publications, blogs, books, popular articles etc.
• By choosing to publish in Social Science Chronicle, the author(s) also grant the journal:
  • an indefinite license to publish the manuscript under provisions of CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Creative Commons License, and
  • permission to include the published manuscript in the archiving mechanism adopted by the journal’s publisher.

• Data sharing in academia refers to the practice of making research data openly available to scientific community and beyond. It involves providing access to raw or processed data underlying a research study.
• Data sharing can take various forms, such as providing data-sets as supplementary materials, depositing data in discipline-specific or institutional repositories, or publishing data papers dedicated to describing and sharing datasets.
• Data sharing offers several merits:
  • Reproducibility : Enables independent verification of results.
  • Collaboration and Innovation : Fosters interdisciplinary collaborations and new insights.
  • Increased Impact : Reaches wider audiences, potentially leading to more visibility and citations.
  • Data Validation and Quality Improvement : Identifies errors, biases, and limitations.
  • Cost and Time Saving : Reduces duplication of efforts, saving resources.
  • Long-Term Preservation : Ensures data accessibility and prevents loss of data.
  • Education and Training : Provides educational resources and supports capacity building.

In summary, data sharing promotes transparency, collaboration, efficiency, and the overall advancement of research.

Social Science Chronicle is committed to fostering an environment that actively promotes and supports the sharing of research data. It is firmly believed that data sharing holds the potential to propel scientific advancements, validate research findings, and foster valuable collaborations. In order to uphold this commitment, the journal adheres to the following data sharing policy :

• Data Sharing as a Norm : Researchers submitting their work to Social Science Chronicle are encouraged to share the underlying data that supports their findings.
• Data Accessibility : The use of open data formats is advocated, and researchers are recommended to make their data available in recognized and widely accessible repositories.
• Data Management and Documentation : Researchers are urged to follow sound data management practices, including appropriate documentation, organization, and annotation of their datasets.
• Attribution and Citation : Proper acknowledgment and citation of datasets utilized in research work are encouraged.
• Data Sharing Statement : Authors submitting manuscripts to Social Science Chronicle are expected to include a data sharing statement that outlines how the underlying research data can be accessed.