Dictionaries in the web of Alexandria: On the dangerous fragility of digital publication

Digital publication is an attractive means of making dictionaries available to the general public, as has been widely documented by lexicographers and dictionary readers alike since the beginning of the "digital revolution" in dictionary publication over thirty years ago. However, commonly adopted means of publishing dictionaries pose dangers to scholarly integrity and to the long-term survival of lexicographical works. Adoption of practices used for the publication of some other online reference works and academic papers, indeed mirroring the survival characteristics of paper dictionaries, can help to mitigate these issues.