JIPLP: URL footnotes

Showing posts with label URL footnotes. Show all posts

Those long URLs: readers' suggestions welcomed

The weight of a footnote burdened
with long domain names can
be simply crushing ...

All modern law publishers are faced with the problem of what to do with long URLs ("uniform resource locators" -- a long-winded way of saying website addresses). They provide a vital means of access to information which has been made available on the internet and authors increasingly employ them in footnoted references. However, they can be infuriatingly long, clumsy and unmemorable, which makes them difficult to proof-read and even more difficult for the reader to type with accuracy. They are also subject to change, for example when the organisation which has uploaded footnoted material makes subsequent amendments to the content of a previously published page (as is the norm with Wikipedia), relocates them to another part of the host website or puts them into archival storage.

While the electronic version of JIPLP can at least put URLs into a hyperlinked format such as

Draft European Parliament Legislative Resolution on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on agricultural product quality schemes: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=REPORT&reference=A7-2011-o266&format=XML&language=EN#title1

Draft European Parliament Legislative Resolution on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on agricultural product quality schemes here

the reader of the printed version faces something like

Draft European Parliament Legislative Resolution on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=REPORT&reference=A7-2011-o266&format=XML&language=EN#title1

which is not aesthetically very engaging and which, in the context of a printed page with two columns of print per page, may take up three or four lines of a footnoted reference.

Tiny URLs are increasingly popular in society at large, particularly in relation to restricted character communication via Twitter. Use of a Tiny URL would shrink

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=REPORT&reference=A7-2011-o266&format=XML&language=EN#title1 [122 characters]

down to

http://tinyurl.com/7fhejga [26 characters]

There does however appear to be some reluctance to use Tiny URLs in formal academic and professional publishing.

A further solution, which is particularly attractive where the material to which reference is made is located on the website of an institutional website with internal search facilities and which is also open to search by the regular search engines such as Google, Yahoo! and Bing, would be to say simply

Draft European Parliament Legislative Resolution on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament (available on the European Parliament website)

thus leaving it to readers to find the document themselves if they chose to do so. And is it worth giving online references to the addresses of statutes, treaties and other documents which everyone now knows, or ought to know, are freely available from a large number of different websites.

Readers' thoughts on this subject are welcome, particularly if I receive them ahead of the next JIPLP team meeting which takes place on Monday 12 March. Please feel free to post your comments below.

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The principal contents of this weblog are drawn from the Current Intelligence features which are published monthly in JIPLP.

Current Intelligence articles are designed to analyse recent key cases, legislation and topical matters. Normally they are of between 500 and 1,500 words (though in exceptional cases a greater word length may be agreed with the Editors).

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JIPLP is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to intellectual property law and practice. Published monthly, coverage includes the full range of substantive IP topics, practice-related matters such as litigation, enforcement, drafting and transactions, plus relevant aspects of related subjects such as competition and world trade law.

The journal is specifically designed for IP lawyers, patent attorneys and trade mark attorneys both in private practice and working in industry. It also aims to be an essential source of reference for academics specialising in IP, members of the judiciary, officials in IP registries and regulatory bodies, and institutional libraries. Subject-matter covered is chosen for its practical relevance and international interest.

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... and authors in search of an article

JIPLP is often approached by prospective authors who would like to write something, but who would appreciate guidance regarding subject-matter, style and so forth. Here are a few pointers:

* Ask yourself what is it that you'd like to read in the journal, since that is handy rule of thumb which probably reflects the interests of your colleagues and your competitors;

* IP law and practice is very much a 'here and now' activity for JIPLP subscribers. The history of a right may be inherently interesting, or even sometimes relevant to the resolution of a specific issue, but would you expect a reader to look for it in JIPLP?

* Recycled Masters' dissertations and university essays make poor articles and are often difficult to convert from a piece that is designed to display erudition and research ability into an article that addresses lawyers, businesses and decision-makers. It's usually easier to start afresh by working out who your readers are and what you want to tell them.

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