The problem of reference rot in spatial metadata catalogues

Martin-Segura, Sergio (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Lopez-Pellicer, Francisco Javier (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Nogueras-Iso, Javier (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Lacasta, Javier (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Zarazaga-Soria, Francisco Javier (Universidad de Zaragoza)

Resumen: 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.

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.3390/ijgi11010027

Año: 2022

Publicado en: ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information 11, 1 (2022), 27 [21 pp]
ISSN: 2220-9964

Factor impacto JCR: 3.4 (2022)

Categ. JCR: GEOGRAPHY, PHYSICAL rank: 18 / 49 = 0.367 (2022) - Q2 - T2
Categ. JCR: COMPUTER SCIENCE, INFORMATION SYSTEMS rank: 88 / 158 = 0.557 (2022) - Q3 - T2
Categ. JCR: REMOTE SENSING rank: 21 / 34 = 0.618 (2022) - Q3 - T2

Factor impacto CITESCORE: 6.2 - Earth and Planetary Sciences (Q1) - Social Sciences (Q1)

Factor impacto SCIMAGO: 0.738 - Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous) (Q1) - Geography, Planning and Development (Q1) - Computers in Earth Sciences (Q2)

Tipo y forma: Artículo (Versión definitiva)

Área (Departamento): Área Lenguajes y Sistemas Inf. (Dpto. Informát.Ingenie.Sistms.)