Predicting the longevity of resources shared in scientific publications

What makes a scientific resource link more likely to remain available?

Code and data links can stop working long after a paper is published. This study examines which features of a resource, its host, and its associated publication help explain and predict its availability over time.

What the study found

• Where and how a resource is shared were important predictors of its longevity.
• Author reputation and journal prestige contributed less than the resource-sharing factors highlighted in the study.

How the study works

The study reconstructs resource availability through web archives and examines features of publications, authors, references, and hosting locations.

Scope and limitations

• Archived observations and predictive associations do not establish that a particular hosting choice guarantees permanence.
• A reachable URL alone does not establish that its contents are complete, usable, or unchanged.

Abstract

Research has shown that most resources shared in articles (e.g., URLs to code or data) are not kept up to date and mostly disappear from the web after some years (Zeng et al., 2019). Little is known about the factors that differentiate and predict the longevity of these resources. This article explores a range of explanatory features related to the publication venue, authors, references, and where the resource is shared. We analyze an extensive repository of publications and, through web archival services, reconstruct how they looked at different time points. We discover that the most important factors are related to where and how the resource is shared, while surprisingly little consideration is given to the author’s reputation or prestige of the journal. By examining the places where long-lasting resources are shared, we suggest that it is critical to educate researchers on modern sharing technologies. Finally, we discuss implications for reproducibility and acknowledge scientific datasets as first-class citizens of science.

Abstract from the original work, reproduced under its Creative Commons license. The overview above summarizes the study.

Cite this work

Daniel E. Acuna, Jian Jian, Tong Zeng, Lizhen Liang, Han Zhuang (2025). Predicting the longevity of resources shared in scientific publications. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-025-04716-z

@article{acuna2022predicting,
  title = {Predicting the longevity of resources shared in scientific publications},
  author = {Acuna, Daniel E. and Jian, Jian and Zeng, Tong and Liang, Lizhen and Zhuang, Han},
  year = {2025},
  publication_date = {2025-05-22},
  journal = {Humanities and Social Sciences Communications},
  volume = {12},
  number = {1},
  pages = {698},
  doi = {10.1057/s41599-025-04716-z},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-025-04716-z}
}