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Gaga over Google? Scholar in the Social Sciences

Article Information:

Title:

Gaga over Google? Scholar in the Social Sciences

Author(s):

Susan Gardner, Susanna Eng

Journal:

Library Hi Tech News

Year:

2005

Volume:

22

Issue:

8

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


Article URL:

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/07419050510633952

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