Retrieving vanished Web references in health science journals in East Africa
| Published date | 10 July 2017 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/ILS-04-2017-0030 |
| Pages | 385-392 |
| Date | 10 July 2017 |
| Author | Alfred Said Sife,Edda Tandi Lwoga |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,Library & information services |
Retrieving vanished Web
references in health science
journals in East Africa
Alfred Said Sife
Sokoine National Agricultural Library, Sokoine University of Agriculture,
Morogoro, Tanzania, United Republic of Tanzania, and
Edda Tandi Lwoga
Directorate of Library Services,
Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences,
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, United Republic of Tanzania
Abstract
Purpose –This study aims to examine the availability and persistence of universal resource locators
(URLs) citedin scholarly articles published in selected healthjournals based in East Africa.
Design/methodology/approach –Four health sciences online journalsin East Africa were selected for
this study. In this study, all Web citations in the selectedjournal articles covering the 2001-2015 period were
extracted. This study explored the number of URLs used as citations, determined the rate of URLs’loss,
identified error messages associated with inaccessible URLs, identified the top domain levels of decayed
URLs, calculated the half-lifeof the Web citations and determined the proportion of recoveredURL citations
through the InternetWayback Machine.
Findings –In total, 822 articleswere published between 2001 and 2015. Therewere in total 17,609 citations
of which, only 574 (3.3 per cent) were Web citations.The findings show that 253 (44.1 per cent) Web citations
were inaccessible and the “404 FileNot Found”error message was the most (88.9 per cent) encountered.Top-
level domains with country endingshad the most (23.7 per cent) missing URLs. The average half-life for the
URLs cited in journal articles was 10.5years. Only 36 (6.3 per cent) Web references were recovered through
the WaybackMachine.
Originality/value –This is a comprehensive study of East African health sciences online journals that
provides findings that raises questions as to whether URLs should continue to be included as part of
bibliographic details in the lists of references. It also calls for concerted efforts from various actors in
overcomingthe problem of URL decay.
Keywords East Africa, Journals, Wayback machine, Citation, Vanished URLs, Web references
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The volume of scholarly electronicpublications, particularly electronic journals (e-journals),
has increased tremendously in the past few years following spectacular transformations
brought about by developmentsin information and communication technologies (ICTs). ICT
developments havegreatly revolutionized almost all aspects of scholarlypublishing ranging
from data collection and analysis, manuscript preparation and submission, peer review
process, dissemination, accessibility and archiving. Scholarly publications are now
deposited, stored and published online where users can discoverand retrieve them through
electronic search facilities such as Web search engines or by following their universal
resource locators (URLs).
Web
references in
health science
journals
385
Received26 April 2017
Revised5 June 2017
Accepted6 July 2017
Informationand Learning Science
Vol.118 No. 7/8, 2017
pp. 385-392
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2398-5348
DOI 10.1108/ILS-04-2017-0030
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