Abstract
The content at the end of any hyperlink is subject to two phenomena: the link may break (Link Rot) or the content at the end of the link may no longer be the same as it was when it was created (Content Drift). Reference Rot 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 Reference Rot. This paper evaluates the presence of Reference Rot and its impact on the 22,738 distribution URIs of 18,054 metadata records from 26 European INSPIRE spatial data catalogues. Our Link Rot checking method detects broken links while considering the specific requirements of spatial data services. Our Content Drift 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 10.41% of the distribution URIs suffer from Link Rot and at least 6.21% of records suffer from Content Drift (do not declare its distribution types correctly). Additionally, 14.94% of metadata records only contain intermediate HTML web pages as distribution URIs and 31.37% contain at least one HTML web page; thus, they cannot be accessed or checked directly.
Highlights
We propose a method to study the presence of Reference Rot in Spatial Metadata Records that considers the content of the linked resources to improve the naive Link Rot checking approach, and uses its type as an indicator of Content Drift
This method can be applied to other catalogues as well; We have detected and measured the presence of Reference Rot in 18,054 metadata records and its 22,738 distribution URIs from 26 officially registered INSPIRE Discovery Services of EU and EFTA countries; We have identified a lack of good practices among the publishers implementing the ISO 19115 standard and the INSPIRE Implementation Guidance as one of the potential causes for Content Drift
We mean that a URI that appears in two different metadata records is not counted twice
Summary
It has the purpose of facilitating the accessibility and interoperability of the resources whilst focusing on sustainable development. This directive proposes a Technical Guidance (the INSPIRE Implementation Guidance) for the implementation of spatial metadata [3]. It proposes the ISO 19115 [4] as the metadata standard and provides some restrictions on how to implement or declare any relevant information about it. Each distribution describes a different way of accessing the same information and may differ in format (data type), location (URI), and so forth
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