Forum
Joined: Mar 31, 2005
Messages: 19
Location: IP.com
Offline
|
There are serious risks in citing a website in an article. First, soon after you cite the website, the url might change or the site could be down all together. The problem with this is not only that the reader will go to a dead link, but this could seriously devalue the article. Depending upon the relevance or importance of the linked content, a dead link could be the equivalent of having several paragraphs of an article deleted prior to publication. Second, and even worse, the link might be live, but, since content on a web page can, and often does, change day-to-day, there is no way for the reader to know that the linked content is the same as it was at the time the webpage was referenced. If the content has changed the reader would be mislead. It could significantly change the readers? view of the article (or the author) and ultimately impact the conclusions or decisions made by the reader based upon the content. Simply put, there is no way for a reader to know whether the referenced (linked) content is the intended content. If that reader happens to be a patent examiner, they cannot rely upon anything outside of the four corners of the article, even if the cited link is live.
|
Register
Login
