Abstract: Recent researches on the performance of short shear links with length ratio smaller than 1.0 have shown that the overstrength and inelastic rotation are much greater than the requirements of current specification. In order to re-evaluate the mechanical properties of short shear links, an analytical study is conducted to investigate the influence factors on the overstrength and inelastic rotation, which are based on the material properties of Q235 and Q345 steel. Finite element models are verified by comparison of theoretical results with experiments results, which are then used to investigate the performance of 108 short shear links, including the stiffener spacing, flange to web area ratio, flange strength and link length to depth ratio. The results indicate that the overstrengh coefficient and inelastic rotation of short shear links can reach 1.90 and 0.13 respectively. Furthermore, the normalized stiffener spacing and flange width-thickness ratio can be relaxed to 40 and 10√235/f_y. Increase of the flange to web area ratio can effectively improve the short shear link strength after the web is fully yielded in shear, but the flange strength and link length to depth ratio have very limited difference on the behavior of short shear links.