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Citation is a highly valued practice in the academic community. This mechanism supports an author’s ideas, theories, and research; it acknowledges the scholarly contributions of others; and integrates academic works to enrich scholarly communication. Well-constructed citations, in addition to providing the appropriate bibliographic information needed to retrieve a supporting document, acknowledge the contribution of previous literature to the topic and create important links between the citing and cited sources which often have similar contents. The development of the World Wide Web has generated the use of digitally-based citations. Web pages can be volatile and are often not static publications, so when an author cites a URL resource there is a risk that it may vanish and thus the cited work is lost. Of particular interest are citation strategies of doctoral students who are developing their research protocols. This study analyzed the patterns of freestanding URL citations found in University at Albany dissertations between 1996 and 2007. Three distinct years of dissertation citations (2000, 2003, 2006) were tested for accessibility and content accuracy. Each URL was searched using a URL Web browser (Firefox), the search engine Google, and two Web archival tools, the Internet Archive and WebCite. The findings of this study indicate that the use of URL citations in dissertations is increasing over time. After testing the URL citations using the four information retrieval tools, the results showed that 42% of Humanities, 61% of Science, and 63% of Social Science citations could be located in at least one of the tools. This research contributes data on the changing nature of scholarly attribution across disciplines, empirically documents the rising use of online citations in scholarly works, and highlights the need to increase discussions about citation policies across academic disciplines if citations are to continue over time as the means of acknowledging the work of others and providing intellectual context to new research. Abstract Results – Web Browser Search Research Questions Results – Dissertations with at Least One URL Citation within Academic Group Results – Google Searches Literature Review (Select) Bugeja, M., & Dimitrova, D.V. (2005a). Exploring the half-life of Internet footnotes. Iowa Journal of Communication, 37 (1), 77-86. Bugeja, M., & Dimitrova, D. (2009). Vanishing act: The erosion of online footnotes and implications for scholarship in the digital age. Duluth, MN: Library Juice press. Casserly, M., & Bird, J.E. (2008). Web citation availability: A follow-up study. Library Resources & Technical Services, 52(1), 42-53. Germain, C. A. (2000). URLs: Uniform resource locators or unreliable reliable resource locators? College and Research Libraries, 61 (4), 359-365. Germain, C.A. (2012). Maintaining persistent scholarship: The case of University at Albany dissertations. (Doctoral dissertation). University at Albany, Albany, NY. Koehler, W. (1999). An analysis of Web page and Web site constancy and permanence. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 50 (2), 162-180. Wagner, C., Gebremichael, M., Taylor, M., & Soltys, M. (2009). Disappearing act: Decay of uniform resource locators in health care management journals. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 97(2), 122-130. This study looked at several issues relating to the persistence of Internet sources cited in dissertations. Its intent was to answer the following primary research questions: 1.What general trends are present in Web citations referenced in doctoral dissertations at the University at Albany (e.g., proportion of URL citations/to total citations; URL citations per academic group (discipline))? 2.What relationship, if any, exists between disciplines and the rate of accessibility for University at Albany URL dissertation citations using a Web browser access tools (e.g., Firefox)? 3.Does the passage of time affect the accessibility rate of online citations, and does this vary across disciplines? 4.What is the rate of accessibility for cited resources using the Internet search engine Google, and two Web archival tools, the Internet Archive and WebCite? 5.Are there differences between the content accuracy of the accessed results of the four retrieval tools (Web browser search, Google, Maintaining persistent scholarship: An analysis of the accessibility rates of cited URLs in doctoral dissertations Carol Anne Germain University at Albany Libraries, State University of New York Results – Dissertations with at Least One URL Citation Humanities Science SocialScience Total N um ber Percent N um ber Percent N um ber Percent N um ber Percent 1996 0 0% 1 1% 2 1% 3 2% 1997 2 1% 0 0% 1 1% 3 1% 1998 0 0% 2 1% 16 10% 18 11% 1999 2 1% 3 1% 14 10% 19 13% 2000 7 5% 9 5% 20 12% 36 22% 2001 8 6% 9 6% 20 13% 37 25% 2002 14 8% 10 6% 44 26% 68 40% 2003 12 7% 8 5% 55 32% 75 44% 2004 13 9% 13 8% 51 32% 77 49% 2005 13 10% 7 5% 60 44% 80 59% 2006 16 11% 22 15% 57 39% 95 65% 2007 11 6% 15 9% 66 38% 92 53% Total 98 5% 99 5% 406 22% 603 32% M ean 8.17 8.25 33.83 50.25 St.Deviation 5.84 6.4 23.91 34.55 D issertations with atLeastO ne U R L C itation by A cadem ic G roup across Study Years Dissertations with at Least One URL Citation by Academic Group across Study Years Humanities Science Social Science Total Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent 1996 0 0% 1 1% 2 1% 3 2% 1997 2 1% 0 0% 1 1% 3 1% 1998 0 0% 2 1% 16 10% 18 11% 1999 2 1% 3 1% 14 10% 19 13% 2000 7 5% 9 5% 20 12% 36 22% 2001 8 6% 9 6% 20 13% 37 25% 2002 14 8% 10 6% 44 26% 68 40% 2003 12 7% 8 5% 55 32% 75 44% 2004 13 9% 13 8% 51 32% 77 49% 2005 13 10% 7 5% 60 44% 80 59% 2006 16 11% 22 15% 57 39% 95 65% 2007 11 6% 15 9% 66 38% 92 53% Total 98 5% 99 5% 406 22% 603 32% Mean 8.17 8.25 33.83 50.25 St. Deviation 5.84 6.4 23.91 34.55 Number and Percentage of Accessible URL Citations via Web Browser Search by Academic Group across Study Years (2000, 2003, 2006) N um berand Percentage ofA ccessible U R Ls via W eb B rowser A ll U RLs A ccessible Percent 2000 Humanities 17 9 53% Science 31 18 58% Social Science 132 54 41% 2000 Total 180 81 45% 2003 Humanities 135 54 40% Science 44 17 39% Social Science 202 73 36% 2003 Total 381 144 38% 2006 Humanities 130 61 47% Science 172 124 72% Social Science 424 216 51% 2006 Total 726 401 55% Total 1287 626 49% Rate of Accessibility and Content Accuracy via Web Browser Search by Study Years (2000, 2003, 2006) and Academic Group R ate ofA ccessiblity and C ontentA ccuracy via W eb B rowserSearch A ll U RLs A ccessible Percent 2000 Hum anities 17 6 35% Science 31 13 42% Social Science 132 19 14% 2000 Total 180 38 21% 2003 Hum anities 135 24 18% Science 44 12 27% Social Science 202 40 20% 2003 Total 381 76 20% 2006 Hum anities 130 32 25% Science 172 107 62% Social Science 424 106 25% 2006 Total 726 245 34% Total 1287 359 28% Number and Percentage of Accessible URL Citations via Google Searches by Academic Group across Study Years (2000, 2003, 2006) A ccessible U R L C itations via G oogle by A cadem ic G roup across 2000,2003,2006 A ll U RLs A ccessible Percent 2000 Humanities 17 8 47% Science 31 12 38% Social Science 132 83 63% 2000 Total 180 103 57% 2003 Humanities 135 60 44% Science 44 12 27% Social Science 202 131 65% 2003 Total 381 203 53% 2006 Humanities 130 59 45% Science 172 63 37% Social Science 424 274 65% 2006 Total 726 396 55% Total 1287 702 55% Rate of Accessibility and Content Accuracy of URL Citations via Google by Academic Group across Study Years (2000, 2003, 2006) N um berand Percentage ofA ccessible U R L C itations with C ontentA ccuracy via G oogle A ll U RLs Accessible Percent 2000 Humanities 17 8 47% Science 31 12 38% Social Science 132 80 61% 2000 Total 180 100 57% 2003 Humanities 135 55 41% Science 44 12 26% Social Science 202 124 61% 2003 Total 381 191 50% 2006 Humanities 130 52 40% Science 172 60 35% Social Science 424 263 62% 2006 Total 726 375 52% Total 1287 666 52% Results – Internet Archive Number and Percentage of URL Citations Accessible via the Internet Archive by Academic Group across Study Years (2000, 2003, 2006) The WebCite searches retrieved less than 2% of URL citations. This can be explained by its short existence (2005) Rate of Accessibility and Content Accuracy of URL Citations via the Internet Archive by Academic Group across Study Years (2000, 2003, 2006) A ccessible U R L C itations with C ontentA ccuracy via the InternetA rchive A ll U RLs A ccessible Percent 2000 Humanities 17 5 29% Science 31 16 52% Social Science 132 41 31% 2000 Total 180 62 34% 2003 Humanities 135 27 20% Science 44 26 59% Social Science 202 67 33% 2003 Total 381 120 31% 2006 Humanities 130 30 23% Science 172 48 28% Social Science 424 153 36% 2006 Total 726 231 31% Total 1287 413 32% A ccessible U R L C itations via the InternetA rchive A ll U RLs A ccessible Percent 2000 H um anities 17 5 29% Science 31 16 51% Social Science 132 57 43% 2000 Total 180 78 43% 2003 H um anities 135 35 25% Science 44 30 68% Social Science 202 87 43% 2003 Total 381 152 39% 2006 H um anities 130 55 42% Science 172 107 62% Social Science 424 208 49% 2006 Total 726 370 51% Total 1287 600 47%
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