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Metadata mega mess in Google Scholar

Péter Jacsó (University of Hawaii, Hawaii, USA)

Online Information Review

ISSN: 1468-4527

Article publication date: 23 February 2010

3279

Abstract

Purpose

Google Scholar (GS) has shed the beta label on the fifth anniversary of launching its service. This paper aims to address this issue.

Design/methodology/approach

As good as GS is – through its keyword search option – to find information about tens of millions of documents, many of them in open access full text format, it is as bad for metadata‐based searching when, beyond keywords in the title, abstract, descriptor and/or full text, the searcher also has to use author name, journal title and/or publication year in specifying the query. This paper provides a review of recent developments in Google Scholar.

Findings

GS is especially inappropriate for bibliometric searches, for evaluating the publishing performance and impact of researchers and journals.

Originality/value

Even if the clean up of Google Scholar accelerates it should not be forgotten that those evaluations of individuals and journals that have been done based on Google Scholar in the past few years have grossly handicapped many authors and journals whose name was replaced by phantom entries.

Keywords

Citation

Jacsó, P. (2010), "Metadata mega mess in Google Scholar", Online Information Review, Vol. 34 No. 1, pp. 175-191. https://doi.org/10.1108/14684521011024191

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2010, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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