Persistent Identifiers

Perma.cc is a service that helps people create links to web content that will never break. Essentially, Perma.cc prevents link rot. Link rot happens when a cited online resource disappears or changes. This is a big problem for academic and judicial scholarship. An example commonly used is content posted to the White House website. This content is typically updated and/or deleted when a new administration takes office. Without a Perma link, readers would be unable to consult the same resource.

UT Austin faculty, staff, and students can use Perma.cc to preserve the online sources they cite and make that content accessible to their readers. See UT Austin Perma.cc resources for more information.

A user submits a URL to Perma.cc. Perma.cc then visits the URL, preserves the content, and deposits it in the Perma.cc collection. The user then gets a unique URL, a Perma link, that points to the record in the collection, rather than the online source directly. This process ensures that the content remains available to future users, even if the original resource disappears from the web.

• When creating a citation, use both the Perma link and the original URL
  • See, e.g., Charles P. Pierce, This Cannot Be the Way Occupy Ends, ESQUIRE: POL. BLOG (Nov. 17, 2011), http://esquire.com/blogs/politics/occupy-wall-street-violence-6575448, archived at http://perma.cc/48VC-ZS62 (bemoaning protestors' "reciprocal violence" and arguing that the protest "can't end in images of bleeding cops and tossed barricades").
• Annotate your links - annotations are not public, but they will help you better understand/organize your links