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published in the 18 March 2005 issue of The Chronicle Review  "As a
member of several editorial boards, I obviously became interested in
your results, and the reasons that led to the decay. I am not convinced
that
it is just technical of missing links, which is easily solvable. I
would
like to know if this has to do with the (at times) superficiality
linked
to online information, with editors/ referees/ authors carelessness,
etc,
etc. I appreciate your work on the subject." |
"I read about your
work
with Prof. Dimitrova on the ephemeral nature of citations
in
communications journals -- the two recent articles in
the Chronicle of Higher Education.
How
true! My
experience
suggests that the decay rate varies by discipline. Contrasting your
half-life
of 15 months for communications links, I read a study
(from
St. Louis as I recall -- maybe from Washington
University?)
about four years ago. The authors found a
link
attrition rate of 15% per year. They were looking at
links
put forward as 'educational' links -- links aimed
at
students rather than researchers, in a number of
educational
fields (secondary or post-secondary) such as science.
15% per
year
suggests a half-life of three years. I was working as an editor with
some
on-line courses at the time (secondary level), so I did a
quick
tally of how many dead external links I faced in an annual
update
of a web-based course in English. Sure enough -- about
15%
in a year. I
have no more information or research than I sketched above. Maybe it helps with
your
ongoing work. Good luck. It does not surprise me that the
links
associated with academic research are more transitory
than
those associated with teaching." "I
read the article about your study of citation decay in the Chronicle of
Higher Education. You may be interested in a similar study that
my colleague
David Brooks and I have conducted on scientific citations. You can view a
summary
of the study at this link.It is interesting to
see
that this phenomenon is not confined to the science literature." "I was pleased
to read about your research in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
I
have studied this issue in the context of citations in law reviews (see
my article
in Law Library Journal) and am very concerned about its effect
on scholarship in all disciplines." "I
am the bibliographer for the journal Ethnomusicology, in which we
publish online "ographies"
three times a year. The current bibliographies, especially, are
tracking more online materials, and I have noticed this problem -- it's
a real issue of concern. I've been working on how to adqeuately cite
both the online article as well as the web site for the organization or
journal."