Faculty staff and students at Mayo are encouraged to use Persistent URL's to ensure the availability of online articles on websites to their intended readers.
Why Can't I Just Download a PDF?
Legal contracts often forbid making available the PDF of licensed material on an internal or external webpage. In most cases, the copyright is held by the publisher (journal), not the author. To maintain the integrity of Mayo legal contracts, the library will support the creation of Persistent URL's for Mayo faculty, staff, and students to use.
Why Can't I Just Copy and Paste the URL for the Article?
Simply cutting and pasting the URL most often creates a "session link" which allows access for only 24 hours, after which the link "breaks" and an error results. This leads viewers to think the article is no longer available or that something has "broken." To obtain a long-lived link to a needed article a "persistent link" is required. Making a persistent link requires a little extra work, but persistent links are permanent and may be saved in a syllabus, website, or emailed for long term use and access. Each publisher (ScienceDirect, Springer) or aggregator (HighWire, Ovid, MD Consult, EBSCO) uses a slightly different method for creating a Persistent link. Please note: sometimes persistent links require several clicks to get to the PDF or article full text. This guide will help you create Persistent Links for many different databases.
Making Links Available Outside of Mayo Clinic
If a link needs to be accessed by external agencies, for example for grant purposes, only free sites or links to PubMed Central will work. If the individual or organization does not have licensed access to full text, the article will not be available, unless permission from the publisher is granted. Mayo Clinic Libraries are not able to provide full text of articles to outside agencies, due to the terms of our licenses.