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

[Monica Barratt]

I also used this discussion as a basis for decisions I made in
referencing for my PhD which was passed in June. At the end of any
reference available online, I gave both the original URL and a web
citation archive URL (webcitation.org). This discussion persuaded me
of the wisdom of providing both original and archive URLs. Examiners
were happy with this but I think it's true value will be appreciated
as time passes and the archived URLs become more useful to view
material no longer hosted at its original location, assuming that
webcitation.org survives!

Thanks to all who participated :)

Monica

On 20 August 2012 19:15, yana breindl <ybreindl at ulb.ac.be> wrote:
> Thank you David for bringing this topic back to my attention and thank you
> all, list members, for your very insightful comments. As I started this
> thread one year ago, I just wanted to provide a final update: the
> dissertation has been submitted (and successfully defended) with the
> original URLs as well as a digital version with hyperlinked URLs, so that
> committee members could simply click on the URLs to access them. Everybody
> was happy this way and I hope this discussion has been helpful for others
> as well.
>
> On 18 August 2012 17:04, David Brake <davidbrake at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> My objection to using shortened URLs academically is more fundamental - it
>> adds an additional potential point of failure between the reader and the
>> target address. URL shortening companies can go bust, can be blocked or
>> just go offline temporarily.
>>
>> I note that ironically the folks behind DOIs have themselves produced a
>> DOI-shortening service http://shortdoi.org/ . But if the DOI folks go
>> bust we are all in trouble...
>>
>> On 22 Jul 2011, at 15:59, yana breindl <ybreindl at ulb.ac.be> wrote:
>>
>> > Thank you all for your comments!
>> >
>> > The reason I asked is not because of a word limit but because one of my
>> > committee members suggested I'd use short links to ease access for
>> readers
>> > of the print dissertation. I do have quite a lot of electronic sources as
>> > footnotes in some of the chapters and he mentioned he'd have typed a
>> > shortened url but not a long one.
>> >
>> > An alternative would be to include short urls in the footnotes and add an
>> > appendix with corresponding long links. I'm not sure it's worth the
>> hassle
>> > though.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > On 22 July 2011 16:39, Sharon Haleva Amir <sharon at trebcon.com> wrote:
>> >
>> >>
>> >> Yana, the only advantage I can think of regarding the usage of shortened
>> >> URL
>> >> is if you're writing an article and there is a words' limitation (as
>> long
>> >> as
>> >> the limitation refers to the bibliography/footnotes as well as the
>> article
>> >> itself), as sometimes the URLs can be quite long.
>> >>
>> >> I think that the need to shorten texts (for twitting etc.) was the basic
>> >> rational for establishing such services.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> Best Wishes,
>> >> Sharon Haleva Amir, HCLT Fellow
>> >> (PhD Candidate) Faculty of Law,
>> >> University of Haifa, ISRAEL.
>> >> --------------------------------------------------
>> >> http://www.coolcite.com/user/1694
>> >> http://weblaw.haifa.ac.il/en/research/resstudents/pages/sharonha.aspx
>> >>
>> >> -----Original Message-----
>> >> From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org
>> >> [mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of yana breindl
>> >> Sent: Friday, July 22, 2011 11:27 AM
>> >> To: Air-L at listserv.aoir.org
>> >> Subject: [Air-L] Inclusion of short links in academic publications?
>> >>
>> >> Hello all,
>> >>
>> >> 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?
>> >>
>> >> Thank you,
>> >>
>> >> Yana
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> ---------------------
>> >> Yana BREINDL
>> >>
>> >> Ph.D Candidate
>> >> Dépt des sciences de l'information et de la communication (SIC)
>> >> Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB)
>> >>
>> >> Tél.: + 32 (0)2 650 44 46
>> >> E-mail: ybreindl at ulb.ac.be
>> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> The Air-L at listserv.aoir.org mailing list
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>> >> http://www.aoir.org/
>> >>
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Yana BREINDL
>> >
>> > Doctorante
>> > Dépt des sciences de l'information et de la communication (SIC)
>> > Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB)
>> >
>> > Tél.: + 32 (0)2 650 44 46
>> > E-mail: ybreindl at ulb.ac.be
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Yana BREINDL
>> >
>> > Doctorante
>> > Dépt des sciences de l'information et de la communication (SIC)
>> > Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB)
>> >
>> > Tél.: + 32 (0)2 650 44 46
>> > E-mail: ybreindl at ulb.ac.be
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > The Air-L at listserv.aoir.org mailing list
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>> > Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
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>>
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