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Robustifying Links To Combat Reference Rot

Journal Article · · Code4Lib Journal
OSTI ID:1879378

Links to web resources frequently break, and linked content can change at unpredictable rates. These dynamics of the Web are detrimental when references to web resources provide evidence or supporting information. In this paper, we highlight the significance of reference rot, provide an overview of existing techniques and their characteristics to address it, and introduce our Robust Links approach, including its web service and underlying API. Robustifying links offers a proactive, uniform, and machine-actionable way to combat reference rot. In addition, we discuss our reasoning and approach aimed at keeping the approach functional for the long term. To showcase our approach, we have robustified all links in this article.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
89233218CNA000001
OSTI ID:
1879378
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-20-30168
Journal Information:
Code4Lib Journal, Journal Name: Code4Lib Journal Vol. 50; ISSN 1940-5758
Publisher:
code4lib.orgCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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