[Air-L] Inclusion of short links in academic publications?

[Joseph Reagle]

On Friday, July 22, 2011, yana breindl wrote:
> I was wondering what your thoughts were concerning the use of shortened URLs
> (e.g. tinyURL, bit.ly etc.) to reference electronic sources in a
> dissertation or other academic publication (along with the title, date, etc.
> possibly an annexe with the long URL). Has this been done already? Is it
> acceptable? Are there important differences between various shortening
> sites?



I think it inappropriate. Who knows how long such sites last and with the original URL one can always make use of various cache or archives sites (Way Back Machine) to try to recover things. Plus, you don't mention what the possible benefit is...?