diff --git a/src/lib/study-refs.js b/src/lib/study-refs.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ab436c2e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/lib/study-refs.js
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+const { recordCategorizedAnomaly } = require('./util');
+
+const possibleAnomalies = [
+  'discontinuedReferences'
+];
+
+function studyReferences (edResults) {
+  const report = [];
+  const recordAnomaly = recordCategorizedAnomaly(report, 'refs', possibleAnomalies);
+  edResults.forEach(spec => {
+    (spec.refs?.normative || []).forEach(ref => {
+      const referencedSpec = edResults.find(s => s.url === ref.url || s?.nightly.url === ref.url || s?.nightly?.alternateUrls?.includes(ref.url));
+
+      if (referencedSpec && referencedSpec.standing === "discontinued") {
+
+	const newSpecsLinks = edResults.filter(s => referencedSpec.obsoletedBy?.includes(s.shortname)).map(s => `[${s.shortname}](${s?.nightly.url || s.url})`);
+	recordAnomaly(spec, 'discontinuedReferences', `[${ref.name}](${ref.url}) ${newSpecsLinks.length ? `has been obsoleted by ${newSpecsLinks}` : `is discontinued, no known replacement reference`}`);
+      }
+    });
+  });
+  return report;
+}
+
+module.exports = { studyReferences };
+
+if (require.main === module) {
+  (async function() {
+    const { loadCrawlResults } = require('../lib/util');
+    const crawl = await loadCrawlResults(process.argv[2]);
+    const results = studyReferences(crawl.ed);
+    console.log(results);
+  })();
+}
diff --git a/src/reporting/file-issue-for-review.js b/src/reporting/file-issue-for-review.js
index f8c4fc7e..93a2d7ca 100644
--- a/src/reporting/file-issue-for-review.js
+++ b/src/reporting/file-issue-for-review.js
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 */
 const { loadCrawlResults } = require('../lib/util');
 const { studyBackrefs } = require('../lib/study-backrefs');
+const { studyReferences } = require('../lib/study-refs');
 const path = require('path');
 const fs = require('fs').promises;
 const { execSync } = require('child_process');
@@ -50,6 +51,10 @@ function issueWrapper (spec, anomalies, anomalyType) {
       title = `Non-canonical references in ${spec.title}`;
       anomalyReport = 'the following links were detected as pointing to outdated URLs';
       break;
+    case 'discontinuedReferences':
+      title = `Normative references to discontinued specs in ${spec.title}`;
+      anomalyReport = 'the following normative referenced were detected as pointing to discontinued specifications';
+      break;
   }
   return {
     title: titlePrefix + title,
@@ -73,7 +78,7 @@ ${issueReport}
 }
 
 if (require.main === module) {
-  const knownAnomalyTypes = ['brokenLinks', 'outdatedSpecs', 'nonCanonicalRefs'];
+  const knownAnomalyTypes = ['brokenLinks', 'outdatedSpecs', 'nonCanonicalRefs', 'discontinuedReferences'];
 
   let edCrawlResultsPath = process.argv[2];
   let trCrawlResultsPath = process.argv[3];
@@ -128,8 +133,10 @@ if (require.main === module) {
     console.log(`Opening crawl results ${edCrawlResultsPath} and ${trCrawlResultsPath}…`);
     const crawl = await loadCrawlResults(edCrawlResultsPath, trCrawlResultsPath);
     console.log('- done');
-    console.log('Running back references analysis…');
-    const results = studyBackrefs(crawl.ed, crawl.tr, htmlFragments);
+    console.log('Running references analysis…');
+    // TODO: if we're not running all the reports, this could run only the
+    // relevant study function
+    const results = studyBackrefs(crawl.ed, crawl.tr, htmlFragments).concat(studyReferences(crawl.ed));
     console.log('- done');
     const currentBranch = noGit || execSync('git branch --show-current', { encoding: 'utf8' }).trim();
     const needsPush = {};
@@ -145,6 +152,10 @@ if (require.main === module) {
           console.log(`No known repo for ${spec.title}, skipping`);
           continue;
         }
+        if (spec.standing === "discontinued") {
+          console.log(`${spec.title} is discontinued, skipping`);
+          continue;
+        }
         const issueMoniker = `${spec.shortname}-${anomalyType.toLowerCase()}`;
         // is there already a file with that moniker?
         const issueFilename = path.join('issues/', issueMoniker + '.md');
diff --git a/test/study-refs.js b/test/study-refs.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d9cc433e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/study-refs.js
@@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
+/**
+ * Tests the links analysis library.
+ */
+/* global describe, it */
+
+const { studyReferences } = require('../src/lib/study-refs');
+const { assertNbAnomalies, assertAnomaly } = require('./util');
+
+const specEdUrl = 'https://w3c.github.io/spec/';
+const specEdUrl2 = 'https://w3c.github.io/spec2/';
+const specEdUrl3 = 'https://w3c.github.io/spec3/';
+
+function toRefs (name, url) {
+  return [ {name, url} ];
+}
+
+
+const populateSpec = (url, refs = [], standing = "good", obsoletedBy) => {
+  const shortname = url.slice(0, -1).split('/').pop();
+  return {
+    url: url,
+    refs: {
+      normative: refs
+    },
+    nightly: {
+      url
+    },
+    shortname,
+    standing,
+    obsoletedBy
+  };
+};
+
+function toEdCrawlResults (standing = "good", replacements) {
+  return  [
+    populateSpec(specEdUrl, toRefs("spec2", specEdUrl2)),
+    populateSpec(specEdUrl2, [], standing, replacements),
+    populateSpec(specEdUrl3)
+  ];
+}
+
+describe('The reference analyser', () => {
+  it('reports no anomaly if references are not discontinued', () => {
+    const crawlResult = toEdCrawlResults();
+    const report = studyReferences(crawlResult);
+    assertNbAnomalies(report, 0);
+  });
+
+  it('reports a discontinued reference with a replacement', () => {
+    const crawlResult = toEdCrawlResults("discontinued", ["spec3"]);
+    const report = studyReferences(crawlResult);
+    assertNbAnomalies(report, 1);
+    assertAnomaly(report, 0, {
+      category: 'refs',
+      message: /spec3/
+    });
+  });
+
+  it('reports a discontinued reference without a replacement', () => {
+    const crawlResult = toEdCrawlResults("discontinued");
+    const report = studyReferences(crawlResult);
+    assertNbAnomalies(report, 1);
+    assertAnomaly(report, 0, {
+      category: 'refs',
+      message: /no known replacement/
+    });
+  });
+
+});