URL stability for citations

Academic citations need to keep working. A footnote written in 2026 should still resolve in 2046. Dartabase commits to that by giving every artwork a stable citation URL that is independent of our internal database.

When you copy a citation URL from an artwork page, you get a link in this form:

https://dartabase.vercel.app/cite/{source}/{source_id}

The pair (source, source_id) is the source institution’s own identifier for the record. That identifier does not change, even if we re-ingest, re-key, rename our internal columns, or redesign the rest of the site. The cite URL always resolves to wherever the artwork currently lives on Dartabase.

What we promise

• A cite URL minted today will resolve to the same artwork for as long as Dartabase exists.
• If we ever change the internal URL structure (/artworks/… today), the cite URL will silently redirect to the new location.
• If a record is genuinely removed (a source institution withdraws it, or we discover an error and pull the row), the cite URL will return a 404, not silently point elsewhere.

What we don’t promise

• Internal URLs (/artworks/<uuid>) are notstable. They’re fine to share casually, but never use them in published citations.
• We don’t guarantee the cited record will continue to carry the exact same metadata over time. Sources correct their cataloguing; we mirror those corrections. The work being cited remains the same; details may improve.