Hi @HDavid,
Please note that the version of OJS that you’re using is no longer supported by PKP. I recommend that you upgrade to the newest version of OJS.
Upgrading instructions are available in the PKP Administrator’s Guide. And information about the latest version of OJS can be found on the PKP Website
In later versions of OJS (3.3+), there is an option for making a section de-activated, so that articles that were previously under that section remain, but new submissions cannot be made to the section if it is discontinued.
That said, articles do have to be associated with sections - and its possible that these articles have become orphaned from their sections and that is why this is occurring. You may want to have a look at this post where they were reconciled using an SQL query: By mistake I deleted the sections and now all the article have been deleted - #4 by varshilmehta
You may have to identify all of the articles without section and ensure that they are then re-associated with the appropriate section.
-Roger
PKP Team