Preserving the scholarly record with WebCite (www.webcitation.org): an archiving system for long-term digital preservation of cited webpages

Editor/Publisher, J Med Internet Res Associate Professor Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, & KMDI, University of Toronto; Senior Scientist , Centre for Global eHealth Innovation, Division of Medical Decision Making and Health Care Research; Toronto General Research Institute of the UHN, Toronto General Hospital, Canada Gunther Eysenbach MD MPH Gunther Eysenbach MD MPH WebCite® (www.webcitation.org) WebCite® (www.webcitation.org)

WebCite® is an on-demand archiving system (controlled by citing and cited authors, editors, and publishers), which enables long-term digital preservation and citability of any kind of Internet-accessible object * Mission * webpages, blogs, wikis, data files e.g. spreadsheets, PDF-reports, “grey” research reports, preprints etc.

E-publishing & Open Access Research Group at the CGEI, Toronto

Journal of Medical Internet Research (www.jmir.org),

Living publishing lab

a pioneer in Open Access publishing (10 yrs)

Leading journal in its discipline (Impact Factor 3.0)

“ triple-O” philosophy (open access, open source, open peer-review)

OS contributions include contributions to OJS and XML-typesetting software (originally © MJ Suhonos, G. Eysenbach, J Alperin, code released under GNU forms basis for PKP Lemon8 project)

CIHR-funded research on the Impact of Open Access on Knowledge Translation (see e.g. Eysenbach. PLoS Biol 4(5): e157 )

Publishing innovations incl. WebCite® (www.webcitation.org)

www.jmir.org

Authors increasingly cite non-traditional (web)references

Webpages (e.g. personal homepages)

“ grey” PDF reports (e.g. research progress reports, etc.)

Blogs

Wikis

Datasets which are available online

Note: For the purpose of this talk I refer to “webpages” or webreferences - but what I really mean is any sort of electronic digital object that can be cited and which can be deemed non-traditional (not having a DOI)

Problem 1: URLs go “dead”

Dellavalle RP, Hester EJ, Heilig LF, Drake AL, Kuntzman JW, Graber M, et al. Information science. Going, going, gone: lost Internet references. Science 2003 Oct 31;302(5646):787-788. DOI:10.1126/science.1088234 In one study published in the journal Science , 13% of Internet references in scholarly articles were inactive after only 27 months.

Problem 2: Even if URLs don’t go “dead”, their content may change

Eysenbach G. Towards quality management of medical information on the internet: evaluation, labelling, and filtering of information BMJ 1998;317:1496-1502

Today, that site looks different… medpics.org

Wikis and Blogs change constantly

The homepage of a blog shows the most recent posts only

Problem 3: Internet material not deemed “citable” (impedes the use of blogs, wikis, online-sharing of datasets etc.)

Editors often discourage citing web material (including datasets) URL:http://www.plantphysiol.org/misc/ifora.shtml. Accessed: 2008-06-26. (Archived by WebCite ® at http://www.webcitation.org/5YsaBISU5)

Internet material not considered citable (Deemed unstable, not archived) Fear of plagiarism / not getting credits

Authors are reluctant to

Making data and datasets online accessible

Participate in collaborative projects (wikis)

Share information in blogs

Problem 4: Crawler-based archiving insufficient

Limitations of crawler based archiving

No author-initiated on demand archiving on a given date/time

“ Shotgun” approach

Crawler cannot go everywhere (“hidden web”)

No impact statistics (how often has my archived copy been retrieved)

Impossible to curate

WebCite = Web Archiving 2.0

The solution: WebCite ®

First mentioned as an idea and implemented as a prototype in 1998 (Eysenbach, BMJ 1998;317:1496-1502)

Project idea revived in 2004/2005

First implemented by J Med Internet Res

Today, used by >200 journals and large publishers (including Biomed Central, Oxford University Press)

Became member of the International Internet Preservation Consortium in 2008

Citing Author /comb WebCite® /archive Cited Author /bookmarklet /archive (self-archiving) Publisher/Editor /archive /comb

What the world needs

J. Author

This is a sample citing paper [1].

References:

Doe J. www.citedwebsite.com/exmpl [Accessed 1.1.2004]

-------------------

-------------------

-------------------

XML Manuscript with DOI® DOI® server IA Libraries/Digital Preservation Partners mirrors Snapshot Retrieval Request (DOI with Hash) © WebCite ® Link Resolver Reverse (citation-triggered) archiving Self (author-triggered) archiving  Third-party archiving CrossRef® Forward Linking XML   (optional) DOI assignment       Reader  (dynamic content) (static content)

Citing Author /comb WebCite® /archive /bookmarklet

J. Author

References:

-------------------

-------------------

-------------------

IA Libraries/Digital Preservation Partners mirrors Snapshot Retrieval Request © WebCite ® Third-party archiving    Reader

Two possible citation formats to cite the WebCite snapshot Eysenbach, Gunther. Gunther Eysenbach Random Research Rants Blog. 2008-06-26. URL:http://gunther-eysenbach.blogspot.com. Accessed: 2008-06-26. (Archived by WebCite ® at http://www.webcitation.org/5YreMGRz7) Eysenbach, Gunther. Gunther Eysenbach Random Research Rants Blog. 2008-06-26. http:// www.webcitation.org/query?url =http%3A%2F%2Fgunther-eysenbach.blogspot.com&date=2008-06-26 Opaque (ID-based) Transparent (Note that there are also others: Hash-based, and citing-document-DOI-based)

4. Displays cached version 2. Request is redirected to webcitation www.citedwebsite.com/exmpl ERROR: NOT FOUND 3. Attempts to retrieve “live” cited URL, if not found displays cached version (and/or other versions)

J. Author

References:

Doe J. www.webcitation.org?cache_url= www.citedwebsite.com/exmpl &cache_date=31.1.2003 [Accessed 31.1 . 2004]

-------------------

-------------------

-------------------

Webcitation.org Reader point of view: for retrieving archived material the reader simply clicks on the WebCite link 1. Reader clicks on cited webcitation-URL (on 1.1.2005) Cached version (timestamp 31.1.2004)

Bookmarklet Can be used to rapidly archive the currently viewed webpage (bookmarklet hands over current URL and email adress of the citing author to the WebCite server)

Citing Author /comb WebCite® /archive Cited Author /bookmarklet /archive (self-archiving)

J. Author

References:

-------------------

-------------------

-------------------

IA Libraries/Digital Preservation Partners mirrors Snapshot Retrieval Request © WebCite ® Reverse (citation-triggered) archiving Self (author-triggered) archiving Third-party archiving     Reader (dynamic content) (static content)

As “potentially cited” author I can self-archive and add a static WebCite-enriched reference as citation suggestion…

… or I provide a dynamic link to the WebCite archiving form (“WebCite this!”)

Click on “WebCite this” populates the archiving form with metadata from the cited author

(the same approach can be used by authors of wikis, datasets etc.)

Implementation from a publisher / editor point of view

Level 1-4 implementation Time since author saw the cited webdocument Author “webcites” document immediately (or reference manager takes care of this) Editors stipulate this in their Instructions for authors Editor/Copyeditor “webcites” cited document before publication 1 2 WebCite® immediately archives cited webreferences on publication (combing XML files) 3 Retrospective focussed crawling of old articles 4

Level 1-Implementation by journal editors: Instructions for authors

Citing Author /comb WebCite® /archive /bookmarklet Publisher/Editor /archive /comb

J. Author

References:

-------------------

-------------------

-------------------

XML Manuscript with DOI® IA Libraries/Digital Preservation Partners mirrors © WebCite ® Reverse (citation-triggered) archiving Self (author-triggered) archiving Third-party archiving CrossRef® Forward Linking XML      

Implemented by >200 journals

What’s next Future developments

WebCite 2.0

User accounts

Enables users to view a list of the snapshots they created (and to categorize and export them e.g. in BibTex, Refman etc.)

Enables tagging, “crowdsourcing” of curation tasks such as metadata entering & reconciliation

Recommender service (people who cited x also cited y)

Post-publication peer-review (others can rate documents)

For cited authors

WebCite® Impact Factor (access / citation statistics, which can be used for tenure & promotion purposes)

WebCitation-Alert service

Implementation of WebCite® in tools facilitating “archive as you cite”

Bibliographic management systems (Endnote, reference manager) and shared bookmarks (Connotea, CiteULike)

XML-editing software (Word 2007 XML-addin, Lemon8 etc.)

Plugin for OJS and other manuscript management systems (allowing authors to automatically WebCite all references in their manuscript)

WebCite® works within the International Internet Preservation Consortium (IIPC)

Collect and preserve a rich body of Internet content from around the world

To foster the development and use of common tools, techniques and standards that enable the creation of international archives

To encourage and support national libraries everywhere to address Internet collecting and preservation

http://netpreserve.org

2008 IIPC Members (38)

Asia

Jewish National and University Library (Israel)

National Diet Library, Japan

National Library Board, Singapore

National Library of China

Europe

Biblioteca de Catalunya (Library of Catalonia)

Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze (National Library of Italy, Florence)

Biblioteka Narodowa (National Library of Poland)

Bibliotheque nationale de France (National Library of France)

British Library (U.K.)

Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (German National Library)

European Archive Foundation

Hanzo Archives Ltd. (U.K.)

Kansalliskirjasto (National Library of Finland)

Koninklijke Bibliotheek (National Library of the Netherlands)

Kungl. biblioteket (National Library of Sweden)

Landsbokasafn Islands – Haskolabokasafn (National and University Library of Iceland)

Latvijas Nacionālā bibliotēka (National Library of Latvia)

Nacionalna i sveučilišna knjižnica u Zagrebu (National and University Library in Zagreb, Croatia)

Narodna in univerzitetna knjižnica (National and University Library, Slovenia)

Národní knihovna České republiky (National Library of the Czech Republic)

Nasjonalbiblioteket (National Library of Norway)

Europe, cont.

National Archives (U.K.)

National Library of Scotland

Netarchive.dk (Royal Library and the State and University Library, Aarhus)

Österreichische Nationalbibliothek (Austrian National Library)

Schweizerische Nationalbibliothek (Swiss National Library)

Virtual Knowledge Studio – Royal Netherlands Academy for Arts and Sciences

North America

Bibliothèque et Archives Nationales du Québec (BAnQ)

California Digital Library (U.S.)

Centre for Global eHealth Innovation, WebCite® Internet Citations Archiving Project (Canada)

Internet Archive (U.S.)

Library and Archives Canada

Library of Congress (U.S.)

Library of Virginia (U.S.)

United States Government Printing Office

University of North Texas Libraries (U.S.)

Oceania

National Library of Australia

National Library of New Zealand

The vision

A global infrastructure (standard APIs)

for cross-archive searching of cited URLs (by URL & date)

Decentralized storing of archived webmaterial

Pilot project with WebCite®, Internet Archive, and Library and Archives Canada

Summary: What WebCite® contributes

Links/URL no longer go 404 (dead)

WebCite’d content does not change

Internet material can be deemed citable and “archived”

Encourages “openess” (authors contribute to blogs, wikis etc., and make their datasets available)

Takes the submission load off journals – much of the scholarly communication can take place outside of journals

Provides access/impact statistics for cited authors

Enables one-click self-archiving

“ Internet Archiving 2.0”: Enables archiving of the “hidden/deep web” (where crawlers cannot go), collaborative assignment of metadata

Call for action

If you are an citing author : use WebCite next time you cite a non-journal URL

If you are a blogger or a (potentially cited) author publishing online in any other way, put a “WebCite this!” link on your page

If you are an editor/publisher : Implement WebCite in your workflow (instructions for authors, copyeditors, XML production department)

If you are a librarian : Contact us to become a long-term preservation partner

www.medicine20congress.com , Toronto, Sept 4-5 th , 2008

Thank you!

Funding

Change Foundation, Canadian Institutes for Health Research, NSERC, European Union, SSHRC

Dr G. Eysenbach, Email: geysenba at uhnres.utoronto.ca or @gmail.com, My peer-reviewed Journal : http://www.jmir.org My Blog : http://gunther-eysenbach.blogspot.com My Conferences : http://www.medicine20congress.com http://www.ehealthcongresss.org My Slides : http://www.slideshare.net/eysen

Appendix

Copyright Issues

WebCite® honors robot exclusion standards and “no-archive” tags

Copyright holders can request removal of material

“ Fair use” defence (used for non-profit/scholarly purposes, only a part of the site was archived, etc.)

U.S. court ruled that Google’s caching does not constitute a copyright violation, because of fair use and an implied license ( Field vs Google , US District Court, District of Nevada, CV-S-04-0413-RCJ-LRL)

In the future, WebCite® may also

Allow copyright holders to specify a fee-per-access royalty fee

Long-term goal: WebCite® does not physically store anything but instead deposits the material in the respective National Libraries etc., who often have a legal deposit mandate*

Legal deposit: a copy of any work published in COUNTRY must be deposited with the National Library of COUNTRY

WebCite® is a disruptive technology

If online articles/material are

Permanently archived and “citable”

Findable

“ Rankable” (post-publication peer-review)

(all of which WebCite® plans to implement)

… what will be the role of the traditional scholarly journal publication?

Quality of pre-publication peer-review, editing, copyediting is key

Value-added services (e.g. semantic markup, curation)

<ref id="ref19"> <label>19</label> －－ <nlm-citation citation-type="web"> <article-title>Who Gets ALS</article-title> <source>ALS Association</source> <access-date>2008 Apr 25</access-date> － <comment> <ext-link xlink:type="simple" xlink:href=" http:// www.alsa.org/als/who.cfm " ext-link-type="uri"> http:// www.alsa.org/als/who.cfm </ext-link> </comment> <pub-id pub-id-type=“other">5Y0NuDIU9</pub-id> </nlm-citation> </ref>

<ref id="ref19"> <label>19</label> －－ <nlm-citation citation-type="web"> <article-title>Who Gets ALS</article-title> <source>ALS Association</source> <access-date>2008 Apr 25</access-date> － <comment> <ext-link xlink:type="simple" xlink:href=" http:// www.webcitation.org/query?url = http:// www.alsa.org/als/who.cfm &date =2008-04-25 " ext-link-type="uri"> http:// www.webcitation.org/query?url = http:// www.alsa.org/als/who.cfm &date =2008-04-25 </ext-link> </comment> </nlm-citation> </ref>

Citing Author /comb WebCite® /archive Cited Author /bookmarklet /archive (self-archiving) Publisher/Editor /archive /comb

J. Author

References:

-------------------

-------------------

-------------------

XML Manuscript with DOI® DOI® server IA Libraries/Digital Preservation Partners mirrors Snapshot Retrieval Request (DOI with Hash) © WebCite ® Link Resolver Reverse (citation-triggered) archiving Self (author-triggered) archiving  Third-party archiving CrossRef® Forward Linking XML   (optional) DOI assignment       Reader  (dynamic content) (static content)