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Source Availability Log

A running record of external source documents that were previously available and are no longer reachable from the URL we used (link rot, relocation, takedown, or access regression).

This is the inverse of the Source Transparency Watch: that page tracks when peers add open access; this log tracks when previously-available primary sources disappear. For a research tool that cites primary documents, "this document used to be here and isn't anymore" is itself a finding worth preserving — for provenance, reproducibility, and to flag entries that may need a new source.

How entries are recorded

Each entry captures, as far as can be established:

  • Document / target — what we were fetching, and where it was used (CI demo set, scorecard source, etc.).
  • Source URL — the URL that is no longer serving the file.
  • Previously available — evidence it worked (commit date it was added, last successful use, and/or Wayback "last-seen" date).
  • Current status — the HTTP status now (e.g. 301/404) and whether the Internet Archive has a copy.
  • Noted — date this disappearance was recorded.
  • Action — what was done (removed from active set, replaced with a mirror, archived copy located, etc.).

An archived capture records that the source was available on that date. Later availability or removal may fall between captures; repository download records provide additional evidence.

Entries

AU Digital Economy report — AU_Digital_Economy_2021.pdf

  • Target: "Building an Enabling Environment for Inclusive Digital Transformation in Africa" — part of the CI live-download demonstration set (.github/workflows/ci.yml).
  • Source URL: https://africaportal.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Building-an-Enabling-Environment-for-Inclusive-Digital-Transformation-Africa-R_DQzy95E.pdf
  • Previously available: added to CI 2026-01-13 (commit 6953891) and downloaded successfully in CI until ~June 2026.
  • Current status: HTTP 301 → redirects to a non-file page (document moved or removed). No Internet Archive capture exists for this URL (0 Wayback snapshots), so no archived copy is recoverable from there.
  • Noted: 2026-06-26.
  • Action: Removed from the CI demonstration set (the step now tolerates individual source failures regardless). The other 9 AU documents remain live. TODO: locate a working mirror of this report (e.g. an au.int or AfDB-hosted copy) and re-add, or source an alternative AU digital-economy document.

Maintained alongside the URL validator (processors/scorecard_validator.py, which flags currently-broken scorecard source URLs). A future enhancement would auto-populate this log: cross-reference broken/redirected URLs against their Wayback last-seen dates to distinguish "transient outage" from "previously-available, now-gone."