Have you ever read an article or legal opinion that cited a website that no longer exists? If so, you know the issues that this presents for authors and scholars. With internet content changing every day, it can be difficult to be sure that a website that you cite now will be available to your readers by the time your article is published. One recent study found that as many as 70% of the links in legal journal citations and 50% of the citations in Supreme Court opinions are broken.
The Harvard Law School Library, in cooperation with a group of over 30 other libraries, has developed Perma.cc to address this problem. Perma.cc allows users to archive websites that they cite in their scholarship for two years. If their work is later published, the editors of the publishing journal can “vest” the archived copy of the link, which will permanently preserve it in its original format. Interested in trying Perma.cc? Check out our guide, which offers step-by-step instructions on how to preserve websites with Perma.cc.