Refreleren

Refreleren is a neologism used in Dutch digital information management to describe the systematic refreshing of references and sources within a document, dataset, or knowledge base. The practice covers identifying outdated or broken citations, updating bibliographic metadata, and replacing links or sources with current equivalents, with an emphasis on maintaining traceability and credibility over time.

Etymology and scope: The term appears to be a blend of refresh and refereren (to refer) and has appeared in online discussions and professional writing since the early 2010s. It is not yet standardized in major dictionaries and varies in adoption across fields.

Process and methods: Typical workflows include detecting stale references (dead links, outdated editions), consulting updated sources, incorporating new or corrected citations, updating bibliographic records, and recording changes in a changelog. Tools often involve citation managers, content management systems, and automated link-checkers; human review remains common for disambiguation and licensing checks.

Applications: Refreleren is used in academic publishing, technical documentation, open data portals, and government repositories to reduce link rot and improve long-term reliability. Benefits include improved verifiability and repeatability; drawbacks include potential errors in automated updates and the need for governance and version control.

See also: refereren, reference management, link rot, citation analysis.