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Article Information:
Title:
Gaga over Google? Scholar in the Social Sciences
Author(s):
Susan Gardner, Susanna Eng
Journal:
Year:
2005
Volume:
Issue:
Page:
42 - 45
ISSN:
0741-9058
DOI:
10.1108/07419050510633952
Publisher:
Emerald Group Publishing Limited
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Abstract:
Purpose – To provide a summary of the main features of Google Scholar.
Design/methodology/approach – Reviews, contextualizes and provides a summary of Google Scholar.
Findings – This article compares the results of a sample search on “homeschooling in Google Scholar against the results in three fee-based article index databases in the social sciences: PsycINFO, Social Science Citation Index, and ERIC. Comparisons are done in the areas of content, currency, relevancy, and overlap. Google Scholar yields more results and a greater variety in its types of sources along with a higher rate of relevancy, but less currency. Ultimately, Scholar’s lack of quality control and inability to let the user manipulate data make it less effective than the fee-based databases at finding scholarly material in the social sciences.
Originality/value – Provides a useful summary for information professionals.
Keywords:
Academic libraries, Digital libraries, Information research, Information retrieval, Online databases
Article Type:
Technical paper