Websites change. Perma Links don’t.

Perma.cc helps scholars, journals, courts, and others create permanent records of the web sources they cite.

Perma.cc is simple, easy to use, and is built and supported by libraries.

An illustration of a publication containing two citations. The first citation includes a link to a website that changes over time and eventually disappears entirely (returns 404). The second citation includes a Perma Link, whose content never changes, and which persists even when the original website disappears.

Perma.cc is a simple way to preserve your links.

Step 1 Find any URL.

An illustration of a website displayed in a person's browser. The URL is highlighted.

Step 2Add it to Perma.cc.

An illustration of the Perma.cc create page: a simple form. The URL from step 1 appears in the input field, and there is a button labelled 'Create Perma Link'

Step 3Create a Perma Link.

An illustration of a Perma Link's record page. A perfect copy of the original website is displayed, along with a header providing details about the link and various tools.

Step 4Cite safely.

An illustration of a publication with citations. The Perma Link is included in the citation along with the webpage's URL.

One good reason to use Perma.cc? How about 404?

Websites change, go away, and get taken down. When linked citations lead to broken, blank, altered, or even malicious pages, that’s called link rot.

Link rot affects everyone who cites links

Over 50% of cited links in Supreme Court opinions no longer point to the intended page. Roughly 70% of cited links in academic legal journals and 20% of all science, technology and medicine articles suffer from link rot.

Articles and studies

Perma: Scoping and Addressing the Problem of Link and Reference Rot in Legal Citations (Perma.cc archive) The Harvard Law Review, 2014
The Cobweb (Perma.cc archive) The New Yorker, 2015
Scholarly Context Not Found: One in Five Articles Suffers from Reference Rot (Perma.cc archive) PLOS One, 2014

Link rot destroys the integrity of your citations

Links start healthy. New citations have been vetted and verified.

After one year. After a year, over 20% of cited links may be dead or otherwise inaccessible.

After five years. After five years, the situation is much worse — over 50% of cited links can be affected.

As time goes on. Link rot is inevitable and rarely reversible. The longer the wait, the more likely a link will have rotted.

Data taken from “Perma: Scoping and Addressing the Problem of Link and Reference Rot in Legal Citations,” Jonathan Zittrain, Kendra Albert & Lawrence Lessig. Harvard Law Review. March 17, 2014.

Meet the Perma Link.

A Perma Link is a reliable, unbreakable link to an unalterable record of any page you’ve cited. It’s a time capsule for a web page, which your readers can easily access.

We’re committed to preservation

Websites change, go away, and get taken down. When they do, linked citations can lead to broken, blank, unintentional, or even malicious pages. This decay is called “link rot.” Perma.cc helps scholars, journals and courts prevent link rot by creating permanent, reliable, unalterable links to the online sources cited in their work.

All about Perma Links

Frequently asked questions

Once you capture a Perma Link, neither its content nor its address will change, no matter what happens to the original link.

It’s easy to make and use a Perma Link.

Copy. Paste. Perma.

Step 1 Find the page you want to preserve. Copy its URL and open Perma.cc.

Step 2 Add your URL to Perma.cc. Select Create Perma Link and Perma.cc does the rest.

Step 3 Get your Perma Link. Perma.cc builds your new record in a matter of moments. When it’s finished, you have a chance to delete or annotate it.

Step 4 Use the Perma Link in your citations. Use your Perma Link as you would the original cited URL. Your citation is safe from link rot — it will never change or break.

Built to last.

Libraries are in the forever business. We’re committed to preserving your digital records to the same standards that we preserve physical records. That’s why over 150 journals, courts, and universities trust us with their citations.

Articles and awards

Webby award winner: Best Law Website (Perma.cc archive) 2015
Cooking up a solution to link rot (Perma.cc archive) Law Library of Congress Blog, 2015

The Problem with URLs in Legal Marketing (Perma.cc archive) BloombergBNA Big Law Business, 2015
Can the Internet Be Archived? (Perma.cc archive) The New Yorker, 2015

Sign up

It only takes a minute to sign up with Perma.cc. Select your organization type and get started.

Perma.cc’s Supporting Partners

Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society