What is Perma.cc?
Perma.cc is a service that helps prevent link rot. Use it to preserve the online sources you cite and to make those records accessible to your readers.
What is link rot?
Have you ever clicked on the link to a website, only to go to a page that says "404 Not Found?" If so, you have experienced link rot (aka "reference rot"), where an online source disappears or changes. It is a real problem, especially for academic scholarship, which depends on citations to stable sources that readers can access.
How does Perma.cc work?
You give Perma.cc the URL of the page you want to preserve and cite. Perma.cc software visits that URL, preserves what's there, deposits it into their collection, and gives you a unique URL (e.g. "perma.cc/ABCD-1234") - a "Perma Link" - that points to the record in their collection.
You then can use that Perma Link in your citation to give readers access to a stable, accurate record of the source you referenced, even if the original disappears from the web.
See an example of a web page archived with Perma.cc - https://perma.cc/G7R6-9XD4
Read more about Perma.cc in our FAQs.
EMU faculty, staff, and graduate students can request a Perma.cc account or additional information by emailing Julia K. Nims (jnims@emich.edu).