The Problem of Reference Rot in Spatial Metadata Catalogues
The content at the end of any hyperlink is subject to two phenomena: the link may break (<i>Link Rot</i>) or the content at the end of the link may no longer be the same as it was when it was created (<i>Content Drift</i>). <i>Reference Rot</i> denotes the combina...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-12-01
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| Series: | ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2220-9964/11/1/27 |
| _version_ | 1797493502676828160 |
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| author | Sergio Martin-Segura Francisco Javier Lopez-Pellicer Javier Nogueras-Iso Javier Lacasta Francisco Javier Zarazaga-Soria |
| author_facet | Sergio Martin-Segura Francisco Javier Lopez-Pellicer Javier Nogueras-Iso Javier Lacasta Francisco Javier Zarazaga-Soria |
| author_sort | Sergio Martin-Segura |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The content at the end of any hyperlink is subject to two phenomena: the link may break (<i>Link Rot</i>) or the content at the end of the link may no longer be the same as it was when it was created (<i>Content Drift</i>). <i>Reference Rot</i> denotes the combination of both effects. Spatial metadata records rely on hyperlinks for indicating the location of the resources they describe. Therefore, they are also subject to <i>Reference Rot</i>. This paper evaluates the presence of <i>Reference Rot</i> and its impact on the 22,738 distribution URIs of 18,054 metadata records from 26 European INSPIRE spatial data catalogues. Our <i>Link Rot</i> checking method detects broken links while considering the specific requirements of spatial data services. Our <i>Content Drift</i> checking method uses the data format as an indicator. It compares the data formats declared in the metadata with the actual data types returned by the hyperlinks. Findings show that <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>10.41</mn><mo>%</mo></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> of the distribution URIs suffer from <i>Link Rot</i> and at least <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>6.21</mn><mo>%</mo></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> of records suffer from <i>Content Drift</i> (do not declare its distribution types correctly). Additionally, <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>14.94</mn><mo>%</mo></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> of metadata records only contain intermediate HTML web pages as distribution URIs and <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>31.37</mn><mo>%</mo></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> contain at least one HTML web page; thus, they cannot be accessed or checked directly. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T01:20:55Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6119ebab418049e6a479cfa6d2e6f18e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2220-9964 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T01:20:55Z |
| publishDate | 2021-12-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information |
| spelling | doaj.art-6119ebab418049e6a479cfa6d2e6f18e2023-11-23T13:59:56ZengMDPI AGISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information2220-99642021-12-011112710.3390/ijgi11010027The Problem of Reference Rot in Spatial Metadata CataloguesSergio Martin-Segura0Francisco Javier Lopez-Pellicer1Javier Nogueras-Iso2Javier Lacasta3Francisco Javier Zarazaga-Soria4Department of Computer Science and System Engineering, University of Zaragoza, 50018 Zaragoza, SpainDepartment of Computer Science and System Engineering, University of Zaragoza, 50018 Zaragoza, SpainDepartment of Computer Science and System Engineering, University of Zaragoza, 50018 Zaragoza, SpainDepartment of Computer Science and System Engineering, University of Zaragoza, 50018 Zaragoza, SpainDepartment of Computer Science and System Engineering, University of Zaragoza, 50018 Zaragoza, SpainThe content at the end of any hyperlink is subject to two phenomena: the link may break (<i>Link Rot</i>) or the content at the end of the link may no longer be the same as it was when it was created (<i>Content Drift</i>). <i>Reference Rot</i> denotes the combination of both effects. Spatial metadata records rely on hyperlinks for indicating the location of the resources they describe. Therefore, they are also subject to <i>Reference Rot</i>. This paper evaluates the presence of <i>Reference Rot</i> and its impact on the 22,738 distribution URIs of 18,054 metadata records from 26 European INSPIRE spatial data catalogues. Our <i>Link Rot</i> checking method detects broken links while considering the specific requirements of spatial data services. Our <i>Content Drift</i> checking method uses the data format as an indicator. It compares the data formats declared in the metadata with the actual data types returned by the hyperlinks. Findings show that <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>10.41</mn><mo>%</mo></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> of the distribution URIs suffer from <i>Link Rot</i> and at least <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>6.21</mn><mo>%</mo></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> of records suffer from <i>Content Drift</i> (do not declare its distribution types correctly). Additionally, <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>14.94</mn><mo>%</mo></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> of metadata records only contain intermediate HTML web pages as distribution URIs and <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>31.37</mn><mo>%</mo></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> contain at least one HTML web page; thus, they cannot be accessed or checked directly.https://www.mdpi.com/2220-9964/11/1/27metadataspatial data infrastructures<i>Reference Rot</i><i>Link Rot</i><i>Content Drift</i> |
| spellingShingle | Sergio Martin-Segura Francisco Javier Lopez-Pellicer Javier Nogueras-Iso Javier Lacasta Francisco Javier Zarazaga-Soria The Problem of Reference Rot in Spatial Metadata Catalogues ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information metadata spatial data infrastructures <i>Reference Rot</i> <i>Link Rot</i> <i>Content Drift</i> |
| title | The Problem of Reference Rot in Spatial Metadata Catalogues |
| title_full | The Problem of Reference Rot in Spatial Metadata Catalogues |
| title_fullStr | The Problem of Reference Rot in Spatial Metadata Catalogues |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Problem of Reference Rot in Spatial Metadata Catalogues |
| title_short | The Problem of Reference Rot in Spatial Metadata Catalogues |
| title_sort | problem of reference rot in spatial metadata catalogues |
| topic | metadata spatial data infrastructures <i>Reference Rot</i> <i>Link Rot</i> <i>Content Drift</i> |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2220-9964/11/1/27 |
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