Open Access News

News from the open access movement


Friday, June 11, 2004

Research implications of link rot

Alan Schroeder, Jr., The Legend of Lost Links, Darwin, June 2004. Excerpt: "To most of us, inactive or incorrect URLs are nothing new, as are typographical errors within print footnotes and missing electronic documents. However, increasingly for undergraduates and professional researchers like Robert Dellavalle [who has studied this problem], websites are primary resources. For institutions receiving billions in government contracts and grants based on past research, success is a vested interest in maintaining integrity....Expect URLs to continue to disappear with no explanation. And expect to see a lot of conflicting and duplicative research."