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

Wed Jul 27 02:58:02 PDT 2011

Hi Monica & all,

On Wed, Jul 27, 2011 at 5:40 AM, Monica Barratt <tronica at gmail.com> wrote:

> I'm talking more about newspaper articles, eg.
>
> I've archived the following newspaper article using webcitation:
> Herald Sun. (2007, December 11). Anger at drug taking, arrests and
> overdoses at rave. Reported by G. McArthur. Archived at
> http://www.webcitation.org/5w2LaSZs7

To call this a "shortened URL" is incorrect and misleading. Rather, it's a
third-party copy of a webpage, at a new URL.

Here's my suggestion:
McArthur, Grant. (2007, December 11). Anger at drug taking, arrests and
overdoses at rave: A 5000-STRONG rave party at Kryal Castle turned into a
war zone at the weekend when 14 people overdosed on drugs. *Herald
Sun* (Melbourne,
Australia): News section.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/kryal-castle-rave-a-war-zone/story-e6frf7kx-1111115080732
Archived
at
http://www.webcitation.org/5w2LaSZs7

This:
(1) Adds the subtitle* for more context and easier searching. There is often
a mismatch between headlines in online and print editions, which can make
searching in Lexis-Nexis, ProQuest, etc. challenging.
*A 5000-STRONG rave party at Kryal Castle turned into a war zone at the
weekend when 14 people overdosed on drugs.
(2) Includes more details about the source: publisher location and section
number
(3) Use the author's full name (it certainly helps in web search engines)
[where do you get "reported" from, by the way?] and uses more typical
author/publisher distinction
(4) Includes the original URL.This helps find the original (e.g. if
webcitation goes away).

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/kryal-castle-rave-a-war-zone/story-e6frf7kx-1111115080732

Personally, I have trained myself to parse and read URLs like this, and I
find they often give abundant contextual information. From this URL, I learn
several things:
(1) The newspaper is in Australia (there's no way I personally would guess
that from "Herald Sun", though I guess searching would imply that)
(2) The newspaper classifies this article as *news* relating to *Victoria*
(which has meaning to me in an .au)
(3) the story has something to do with a rave, kryal castle, and a war zone

This info is redundant is mostly included my version of the citation (which
is good: citations are a place where redundancy is useful for
crosschecking). Yet the URL does something else: it provides a way for the
reader to get to the original source, even if webcitation is gone. Even if
the original is gone, archives (such as archive.org) are based on the URL.
Of course, it is long to type -- but the persistent reader will do that if
needed. And you can help such a reader by providing an online version of
your bibliography. :)

> So I'm never using shortened URLs to 'remove information' or on their
> own. Rather I'm adding additional information and providing a stable
> link to the archived source. However, if webcitation is not around in
> 10 years, people can still use traditional search techniques with news
> databases to locate the article.
>
> I wouldn't do this with references to websites where the web address
> is the only information available about the source.
>
> Any opinions on this sort of use?
>

Your intentions are good, your implementation is reasonable, and this is
*very* different from "URL shortening". But include the original URL, too:
it still benefits the reader.

-Jodi

>
> Monica
>
>
>
> On 26 July 2011 23:47, Jodi Schneider <jschneider at pobox.com> wrote:
> > Please, do not use shortened links in academic publications: this removes
> so
> > much valuable information.
> > To help your reader, provide an online copy of your bibliography (and
> track
> > clicks from there if you must) -- both of the Web and non-Web materials.
> >
> > AOIR should speak out loudly *against* so-called "citation formats" such
> as
> > MLA's which do not require a URL for native web formats.
> > When dealing with shortened URLs that have broken -- or if you want to
> > contribute to the archiving effort, check the Archive Team's project on
> > shortened URLs:
> > http://urlte.am
> > -Jodi
> >
> > On Tue, Jul 26, 2011 at 1:34 PM, Johann Hoechtl
> > <Johann.Hoechtl at donau-uni.ac.at> wrote:
> >>
> >> Ironically, the link doesn't work for me - Time out.
> >>
> >> Albeit the idea is appealing! I still think it's a good idea to work
> with
> >> short links for ease of readability and facilitate manual entry of web
> >> addresses in a browser. A corresponding short - to - longlist in the
> >> appendix of the paper should be enough for a wayback machine.
> >>
> >> A short-url service specifically for acedemic research would also be a
> >> great starter for collaborative url collection, but I am digressing ...
> >>
> >> Johann
> >>
> >> >>> Monica Barratt <tronica at gmail.com> schrieb am 26.07.2011 um 14:09
> in
> >> >>> Nachricht
> >> <CAF9Ekp1j_i6853QXnixKN3A6upFO1z63+caW0Sc24aZr0Q75Yg at mail.gmail.com>:
> >> > Does anyone have an opinion on using webcitation as an archiving
> >> > service?
> >> > http://www.webcitation.org/faq
> >> >
> >> > They seem to be made for this kind of work. I was considering using
> >> > them in my thesis reference list and was thinking about including the
> >> > short URL only, but can see now that maybe that's not the best idea.
> >> > However, webcitation claim they won't 'disappear' down the track. I
> >> > guess that's been said before!
> >> >
> >> > Cheers
> >> > Monica
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > On 26 July 2011 13:33, Denise N. Rall <denrall at yahoo.com> wrote:
> >> >> Dear Johan  -
> >> >>
> >> >> At my uni, they move the papers into a digital repository called
> >> >> bpress.
> >> > There are digital repositories on the market as well.
> >> >>
> >> >> Each paper included contains the last draft the researcher submitted
> >> >> for
> >> > publication which avoids copyright tangles (apparently). Other works
> >> > included
> >> > on the page are cleared for copyright by our library staff.
> >> >>
> >> >> bpress generates its own statistics on how many times each reference
> >> >> (paper
> >> > or thesis, etc.) has been accessed. So one always knows how many times
> >> > the
> >> > paper has been accessed. So do the administrators.
> >> >>
> >> >> Cheers, Denise
> >> >>
> >> >> Dr Denise N. Rall, Research Assistant, School of Health & Human
> >> >> Sciences
> >> >> Exhibitor, Art in Chemistry, NeXT Gallery, Magellan St., Lismore,
> >> >> Opening Thursday 18 August 18 5-7 PM, On display 8-26 August, 2011
> >> >> Lismore NSW AUSTRALIA Mobile +(61)(0)438 233344 Fax +(61)(0)2 6624
> 5380
> >> >> http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/esm/staff/pages/drall/
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >> --- On Sat, 23/7/11, Joseph Reagle <joseph.2011 at reagle.org> wrote:
> >> >>
> >> >>> From: Joseph Reagle <joseph.2011 at reagle.org>
> >> >>> Subject: Re: [Air-L] Antw: Re: Inclusion of short links in academic
> >> > publications?
> >> >>> To: "Johann Hoechtl" <Johann.Hoechtl at donau-uni.ac.at>
> >> >>> Cc: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
> >> >>> Received: Saturday, 23 July, 2011, 1:03 AM
> >> >>> On Friday, July 22, 2011, Johann
> >> >>> Hoechtl wrote:
> >> >>> > If you are the one who created the shortlinks, it's
> >> >>> likely that you have the ability to track how many times it
> >> >>> was clicked (if you register at the shortening service)
> >> >>>
> >> >>> OK, understood.
> >> >>>
> >> >>> > * If you happen to publish a paper in a (closed)
> >> >>> journal you are able to interpolate a figure how often your
> >> >>> submission was read (if there is a statistical figure how
> >> >>> many paper readers actually follow references, footnotes or
> >> >>> plain internet links). Did the reviewers took a deep look
> >> >>> into your references? From that you can derive a, admittedly
> >> >>> problematic, cost-value ratio of the journal.
> >> >>>
> >> >>> Ah, I was thinking the primary thing I'd want to know was
> >> >>> how many people read my paper but that's not something I'd
> >> >>> have access to. But I can see your interpolation point
> >> >>> though I'd be cognizant that (again) there are many services
> >> >>> out there.
> >> >>>
> >> >>> As to other reasons (usefulness of my sources, and
> >> >>> countries and such), those haven't been too compelling to
> >> >>> me, and I'll note that this might steal page rank link juice
> >> >>> -- since references to things will now have multiples URLs.
> >> >>> _______________________________________________
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