# Availability of Hyperlinked Resources in Astrophysics Papers

## TL;DR

This study assesses the accessibility of URLs linking to software and data in astrophysics papers, revealing the reliability of online resources over time and highlighting potential issues in resource availability.

## Contribution

It provides an empirical analysis of URL availability in astrophysics literature, focusing on the persistence of online resources over a three-year period.

## Key findings

- A significant percentage of URLs were inaccessible after three years.
- URLs from long-term reliable domains had higher accessibility.
- The study highlights challenges in maintaining persistent links in scientific publications.

## Abstract

Astrophysics papers often rely on software which may or may not be available, and URLs are often used as proxy citations for software and data. We extracted all URLs from two journals' 2015 research articles, removed those from certain long-term reliable domains, and tested the remainder to determine what percentage of these URLs were accessible in October 2018.