Gaga over Google? Scholar in the Social Sciences

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
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.

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