Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Google Scholar in Authors' Information Retrieval

پژوهشنامه کتابداری و اطلاع رسانی

Article 10, Volume 5, Issue 1 - Serial Number 9, June 2015, Pages 205-220   

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: 10.22067/riis.v5i1.24674

Authors

shahrbanoo sadeghi gouraji^{* 1}; Ali Akbar Pourahman²; Mohsen Hajizeinolabedini³; soraya Zeiaei¹

¹Mashhad Payame Noor University

²Shriven Branch, Islamic Azad University

³Shahid Beheshti University

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to evaluate the role of Google Scholar effectiveness in the retrieval of the most cited authors' information and publications under different name versions.
Method: This research was applied and has been done under the Survey-Descriptive method. Data collection was done through the field and library methods. The study population included 10 most cited authors in 5 fields which were gathered from In-cite webpage through non-probability sampling method. Different versions of the authors' name retrieval were adjusted to his publications’ check list.
Findings: The recall result of the 12 variables (The formula used to search authors' names) showed that only 4 out of 10 cases were above than the recall average and precision in all of the variables, were below the average level. Friedman test was prioritized for the recall and precision average factors which showed that no variable is better than the other. The results of the student test for measuring the independence of 1 to 6 variables (different names of authors without limiting to a subject) showed that there were not any differences between these two categories of variables but the precision in 1to 6 variables (different names of authors without limiting a subject) is higher than the name limitations of the subjects. Overall, the results suggested that Google Scholar which is used to retrieve the various versions of authors’ names is usually not desirable.

Keywords

Google Scholar; Most-cited authors; Information retrieval; Authors’ names; Different versions of authors’ names

References

Donlan, R. and R. Cooke, (2006). Running with the devil: Accessing library-licensed full text holdings through google scholar. Internet Reference Services Quarterly. 10(3-4): p. 149-157.

Fattahi, R (2007). From ideals to realities: a review of the most important challenges and approaches of information organization in the present time. Library and Information Science. 4 (40) (In Persian).

Harzing, A.W.K. and R. van der Wal, (2008). Google Scholar as a new source for citation analysis. Ethics in Science and Environmental Politics. 8(1): p. 61-73.

Jacso, P. (2005). Google Scholar: the pros and the cons. Online Information Review. 29(2): p. 208-214.

Jacso, P. (2008). Savvy searching - Google Scholar revisited. Online Information Review. 32(1): p. 102-114.

Jacso, P. (2009). Google scholar's ghost authors. Library Journal. 134(18).

Jacso, P. (2010). Metadata mega mess in Google Scholar. Online Information Review. 34(1): p. 175-191.

Kesselman, M. and S.B. Watsen, (2005). Google Scholar and libraries: Point/counterpoint. Reference Services Review. 33(4): p. 380-387.

Kousha, K. (2008). Overlap between ISI and Google Scholar in Science disciplines, Quarterly Journal of National Library of Iran, 18(3), 213-234 (In Persian).

Levine-Clark, M. and J. Kraus, (2007). Finding chemistry information using Google Scholar: A comparison with Chemical Abstracts Service. Science and Technology Libraries. 27(4): p. 3-17.

Meho, L.I. and K. Yang, (2007). Impact of data sources on citation counts and rankings of LIS faculty: Web of science versus scopus and google scholar. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. 58(13): p. 2105-2125.

Neuhaus, C., et al., (2006). The depth and breadth of Google Scholar: An empirical study. Portal-Libraries and the Academy. 6(2): p. 127-141.

Noruzi, A. (2005). Google Scholar: The new generation of citation indexes. LIBRI. 55(4),p. 170-180.

Potter, C. (2008). Standing on the shoulders of libraries: A holistic and rhetorical approach to teaching google scholar. Journal of Library Administration. 47(1-2): p. 5-28.

Ramezani, A. (2007). Librarians’ questions from Google Scholar. Information Seeking and Information Sciences 5(1) 15-16 (In Persian).

Walters, W.H., (2007) Google Scholar coverage of a multidisciplinary field. Information Processing and Management. 43(4): p. 1121-1132.

Evaluation of the effectiveness of Google Scholar in authors' information retrieval

Sh. Sadeghi Gouraji , A. A. Pourahman , M. Hajizeinolabedini , S. Zeiaei