Randy J Carnevale1, Dominik Aronsky. 1. Department of Biomedical Informatics, Eskind Biomedical Library, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Vanderbilt University, 2209 Garland Avenue, Nashville, TN 37232-8340, USA.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To determine the decay rate of Uniform Record Locators (URLs) in the reference section of biomedical informatics journals. METHODS: URL references were collected from printed journal articles of the first and middle issues of 1999-2004 and electronically available in-press articles in January 2005. We limited this set to five biomedical informatics journals: Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, International Journal of Medical Informatics, Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association: JAMIA, Methods of Information in Medicine, and Journal of Biomedical Informatics. During a 1-month period, URL access attempts were performed eight times a day at regular intervals. RESULTS: Of the 19,108 references extracted from 606 printed and 86 in-press articles, 1112 (5.8%) references contained a URL. Of the 1049 unique URLs, 726 (69.2%) were alive, 230 (21.9%) were dead, and 93 (8.9%) were comatose. URLs from in-press articles included 212 URLs, of which 169 (79.7%) were alive, 21 (9.9%) were dead, and 22 (10.4%) were comatose. The average annual decay, or link rot, rate was 5.4%. CONCLUSION: The URL decay rate in biomedical informatics journals is high. A commonly accepted strategy for the permanent archival of digital information referenced in scholarly publications is urgently needed.
OBJECTIVE: To determine the decay rate of Uniform Record Locators (URLs) in the reference section of biomedical informatics journals. METHODS: URL references were collected from printed journal articles of the first and middle issues of 1999-2004 and electronically available in-press articles in January 2005. We limited this set to five biomedical informatics journals: Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, International Journal of Medical Informatics, Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association: JAMIA, Methods of Information in Medicine, and Journal of Biomedical Informatics. During a 1-month period, URL access attempts were performed eight times a day at regular intervals. RESULTS: Of the 19,108 references extracted from 606 printed and 86 in-press articles, 1112 (5.8%) references contained a URL. Of the 1049 unique URLs, 726 (69.2%) were alive, 230 (21.9%) were dead, and 93 (8.9%) were comatose. URLs from in-press articles included 212 URLs, of which 169 (79.7%) were alive, 21 (9.9%) were dead, and 22 (10.4%) were comatose. The average annual decay, or link rot, rate was 5.4%. CONCLUSION: The URL decay rate in biomedical informatics journals is high. A commonly accepted strategy for the permanent archival of digital information referenced in scholarly publications is urgently needed.
Authors: Dominik Aronsky; Sina Madani; Randy J Carnevale; Stephany Duda; Michael T Feyder Journal: J Am Med Inform Assoc Date: 2007-01-09 Impact factor: 4.497
Authors: Serghei Mangul; Thiago Mosqueiro; Richard J Abdill; Dat Duong; Keith Mitchell; Varuni Sarwal; Brian Hill; Jaqueline Brito; Russell Jared Littman; Benjamin Statz; Angela Ka-Mei Lam; Gargi Dayama; Laura Grieneisen; Lana S Martin; Jonathan Flint; Eleazar Eskin; Ran Blekhman Journal: PLoS Biol Date: 2019-06-20 Impact factor: 8.029