Library Faculty Publications

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book/Conference Title

portal: Libraries and the Academy

Volume

6

Issue

2

First Page

127

Last Page

141

Abstract

The introduction of Google Scholar in November 2004 was accompanied by fanfare, skepticism, and numerous questions about the scope and coverage of this database. Nearly one year after its inception, many of these questions remain unanswered. This study compares the contents of 47 different databases with that of Google Scholar. Included in this investigation are tests for Google Scholar publication date and publication language bias, as well as a study of upload frequency. Tests show Google Scholar’s current strengths to be coverage of science and medical databases, open access databases, and single publisher databases. Current weaknesses include lack of coverage of social science and humanities databases and an English language bias.

Department

Rod Library

Comments

First published in portal: Libraries and the Academy, v. 6, n. 2 (2006): pp. 127-141, published by The John Hopkins University Press.

Original Publication Date

2006

DOI of published version

10.1353/pla.2006.0026

Repository

UNI ScholarWorks, University of Northern Iowa, Rod Library

Copyright

© 2006 The John Hopkins University Press. The copyright holder has granted permission for posting.

Date Digital

2006

Language

EN

File Format

application/pdf

Share

COinS