Elon University

A vision for the future

This is one of nearly a thousand foresight statements shared by people from around the world. To return to the Voices of the People home page or to refine your search, click here.

Name: Betsy McKenzie

From: Massachusetts

Bio: Librarian, studying computing & its effects since 1986

Area of Expertise: Research Scientist/Illuminator

Topic: Getting, Sharing Information

Headline: Effects of Internet Use

Nutshell: Internet research papers have citation rot- the footnotes to URLs where webpages come back 401 or have changed.

Vision:

As more people cite to web pages in their research papers, there will be an increasing problem of citation rot, where the footnotes lead to sites that have disappeared or changed from the time the writer cited them. This will be an increasing problem for researchers, unless something is done to address the problem. Perhaps including an appendix with screenshots of key sites should become a regular habit.

Date Submitted: March 16, 2010

Back to search