Link rot is a phenomenon in which users will find broken links caused by content being relocated or removed from its original online address. According to Perma.cc, roughly 70% of cited links in academic legal journals and 20% of all science, technology and medicine articles suffer from link rot.
Perma.cc is a service created by the Harvard Library Innovation Lab that helps prevent link rot. This service allows you to archive web content by capturing an image of website and generating a URL. If an online source you cite is ever edited or taken down, readers of your publication can refer back to the site as you saw it.
Example: perma.cc/9265-T4NB
This is an example of a Perma.cc link of the Whitehouse.gov homepage on November 18, 2015. Click on the "View the live page" link to compare with today's homepage.
Step 1: Email digitalcommons@lmu.edu to request an account.
Step 2: Log in to your account
Step 3: Paste or type the URL of the page you want to preserve
Step 4: Select the appropriate organization or folder to save your link to
Step 5: Click the "Create Perma Link" button
