Once upon a time: Lost internet references

Objective: In this study, it was aimed to evaluate the frequency of use and availability of Internet references of articles published on journals which were the only journals indexed in Science Citation Index – Expended and Social Science Citation Index during the research date and originated from. Material and Methods: All issues including supplements published from 2005 to 2007 of eight journals were assessed. References of all papers published during that time interval were extracted and availability of all web references among these references was evaluated. Results: Of the 40,463 references, 258 were Internet originated. A total of 38 out of 258 (14.7%) Internet references remained as unavailable after all attempts. The unavailability rates of Internet references were 9.4%, 17.6%, and 14.9% for 2005, 2006, and 2007 respectively. Conclusion: It is not possible to suggest avoiding using Internet references. Precautions for securing the references used in journals should be taken urgently. Peer-reviewed journals can support archiving for the web references accepted by their editorial boards and similar editorial boards can evaluate the references same as the content of the manuscripts.