diff --git a/CHANGES.rst b/CHANGES.rst
index 2881af786..303526f67 100644
--- a/CHANGES.rst
+++ b/CHANGES.rst
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ Fixes:
   (see https://github.com/python-jsonschema/jsonschema/blob/main/CHANGELOG.rst#v4180,
   https://python-jsonschema.readthedocs.io/en/v4.18.0/api/jsonschema/validators/#jsonschema.validators._RefResolver
   and `python-jsonschema/jsonschema#1049 <https://github.com/python-jsonschema/jsonschema/pull/1049>`_).
+- Fix multiple linting checks, documentation dependencies and link references.
 
 .. _changes_4.30.0:
 
diff --git a/docs/source/conf.py b/docs/source/conf.py
index 44839f0d7..35ebbeba9 100644
--- a/docs/source/conf.py
+++ b/docs/source/conf.py
@@ -432,8 +432,6 @@ def doc_redirect_include(file_path):
     # following have sporadic downtimes
     "https://esgf-data.dkrz.de/",
     "https://indico.egi.eu/",
-    # ignore anchors not found although valid
-    "https://spec.openapis.org/oas/v3.1.0/*#*",
     ".*docker-registry.crim.ca.*",  # protected
     # might not exist yet (we are generating it!)
     "https://pavics-weaver.readthedocs.io/en/latest/api.html",
@@ -445,8 +443,11 @@ def doc_redirect_include(file_path):
     "https://ogc-ades.crim.ca/.*",
     "https://ogc.crim.ca/.*",
     "https://github.com/.*\\.rst#.*",
-    # GitHub anchors causing problems
-    "https://github.com/OAI/OpenAPI-Specification/blob/main/versions/3.0.3.md#xml-object",
+]
+linkcheck_anchors_ignore = [
+    "xml-object",  # https://github.com/OAI/OpenAPI-Specification/blob/main/versions/3.0.3.md
+    "data-types",  # https://spec.openapis.org/oas/v3.1.0
+    "defusedxmllxml",  # https://github.com/tiran/defusedxml/tree/main
 ]
 
 linkcheck_timeout = 30
diff --git a/requirements-doc.txt b/requirements-doc.txt
index 5ccf8637b..797096ae0 100644
--- a/requirements-doc.txt
+++ b/requirements-doc.txt
@@ -5,7 +5,8 @@
 -r requirements.txt
 cloud_sptheme
 jinja2<3.1  # fix sphinx failing, see: https://github.com/sphinx-doc/sphinx/issues/10291
-sphinx>=3.5,<6
+sphinx>=3.5,<6; python_version <= "3.7"
+sphinx>=6,<8; python_version >= "3.8"
 sphinx-argparse
 sphinx-autoapi>=1.7.0
 sphinx-paramlinks>=0.4.1
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 47a8a5bf3..5140afdf0 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -36,8 +36,6 @@ cryptography
 # (https://github.com/common-workflow-language/common-workflow-language/issues/587)
 ### git+https://github.com/crim-ca/cwltool@docker-gpu#egg=cwltool; python_version >= "3"
 cwltool==3.1.20230213100550
-# defused required for json2xml
-defusedxml
 docker
 duration
 esgf-compute-api @ git+https://github.com/ESGF/esgf-compute-api.git@v2.3.7
diff --git a/weaver/xml_util.py b/weaver/xml_util.py
index 768405108..f3d6f9026 100644
--- a/weaver/xml_util.py
+++ b/weaver/xml_util.py
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 instead, because that package's extension with :mod:`lxml` is marked as deprecated.
 
 .. seealso::
-    https://pypi.org/project/defusedxml/#defusedxml-lxml
+    https://github.com/tiran/defusedxml/tree/main#defusedxmllxml
 
 To use the module, import is as if importing :mod:`lxml.etree`: