Digital Preservation & Sustainability Strategy
The Journal of Socio-Cultural Narratives is committed to a sustainable future- its digital strategy prioritizes not only the immediate dissemination of knowledge but also its long-term preservation, environmental sustainability, and robust security. Our technical infrastructure is a deliberate choice, reflecting our core values of responsibility and durability in a digital age characterized by ephemerality and data insecurity.
A central pillar of our strategy is a commitment to a minimal carbon footprint. We consciously reject the bloated, energy-intensive platforms that dominate much of the modern web. Our website is built as a highly efficient static site, a technical architecture wherein every page is a simple, pre-built file. When a user visits our journal, the server's only task is to deliver this lightweight file. This process avoids the need for complex, database-driven operations on every page load, dramatically reducing server-side energy consumption and, consequently, our environmental impact. This aligns our technical practices with our progressive editorial mission.
The security and sovereignty of our data are also paramount. The journal's website is securely hosted on a DigitalOcean server located in the Amsterdam (AMS3) datacenter. This European location was strategically chosen for its world-class physical and network security infrastructure, as well as its operation within the Netherlands' strong legal framework for data privacy and protection. This provides a stable and secure environment for our public-facing platform, protecting it from common web vulnerabilities and ensuring a reliable experience for our readers.
We recognize, however, that a website is a platform for access, not a permanent archive. To guarantee the long-term preservation of our published works against technological obsolescence or platform failure, all primary audio-visual files are professionally archived in the Zenodo repository & in Vimeo simultaneously. Zenodo is a trusted, open-science platform operated by CERN in Switzerland, designed specifically for the long-term storage and citation of scientific and cultural data. Its robust infrastructure and institutional backing ensure that the data it holds will be preserved for decades to come.
This dual-platform approach provides two critical benefits for scholarly integrity. First, every article/video receives a persistent Digital Object Identifier (DOI) from Zenodo. This DOI is a permanent, globally unique link that will always resolve to the archived file, regardless of the status of our own website. It is the key to ensuring permanent, stable reference. Second, Zenodo's archival process ensures the bit-level integrity of the files, protecting them from degradation or "bit rot" over time.
The public face of our journal, the domain name journalscn.com, is managed through TransIP, a leading registrar also based in the Netherlands. Operating within the same progressive Dutch and EU legal framework as our web host, TransIP provides a stable and reliable foundation for our online identity. Their commitment to robust security practices protects our domain from unauthorized access or disruption, which is a critical first line of defense in digital preservation. By consolidating our hosting and domain management within the same forward-thinking jurisdiction, we create a cohesive and resilient technical ecosystem that benefits from the Netherlands' advanced infrastructure and strong commitment to digital rights and sustainability.
Finally, the website itself is built and managed using Publii, a desktop-based, static-site generator developed in Poland. By choosing a tool from a company based within the European Union, we ensure that the software itself is developed under the same strong GDPR data protection and privacy standards that govern our hosting and domain services. This provides an extra layer of confidence in the security and integrity of the tool we use to handle our content. Unlike database-driven systems that constantly consume server resources, Publii generates a set of simple, lightweight HTML files. From a preservation perspective, a static site is inherently more secure and stable; with no database or complex server-side software, there are far fewer vulnerabilities to exploit. This architectural simplicity, originating from a privacy-conscious European context, ensures that our site is not only fast and efficient but also robust and easier to preserve over the long term, perfectly aligning with our mission of creating a lasting, low-impact home for critical scholarship.
Our digital strategy is one of intentional separation of concerns: our fast and efficient website provides immediate access, while our robust archival partnership guarantees permanent preservation. This ensures that the vital contributions of our authors are not merely published for the present but are securely and verifiably preserved for future generations of scholars, researchers, educators, care providers and activists.