Citation tracking of scientific publications through two different searching tools : Google scholar and Web of science
(2006) Citation tracking of scientific publications through two different searching tools : Google scholar and Web of science. Delivered at Institutional archives for research : experiences and projects in Open Access, Rome (Italy). Presentation.
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Abstract
[English abstract]
Citation analysis has been used since the mid-20th century as a tool to measure impact and
visibility of scientific articles, to monitor a subject trend, and to evaluate the scientific impact of
a given researcher or institution. Although it has been recognized as an often inappropriately
applied practice, the impact factors of journals in which authors publish are still employed in
many countries to evaluate the performance of an author or of a research group in order to
award grants or government funding.
The purpose of this presentation is to assess similarities and differences in citation tracking
of scientific publications of two searching tools: Google Scholar (GS) and Web of Science
(WoS).
Google Scholar <http://scholar.google.com> is a free-of-charge search engine aimed at
finding scholarly information on the Web, available in its beta version since November 2004.
Its search includes bibliographic references and the full-text of peer-reviewed papers, theses,
books, abstracts, technical reports. The special feature of Google Scholar is its "cited by" option
which provides searchers with links to other articles that have cited the paper being viewed; its
search engine automatically extracts and analyzes citations and presents them as separate
results, giving links to the full-text of the articles as present on the Web.
Thomson Web of Science <http://scientific.thomson.com/webofknowledge/wosgenben.html>
is a subscription-based multidisciplinary database covering scientific literature from about
6,125 journals dating from as far back as 1945. It’s a valuable and well-known tool for
exhaustive research. The feature "cited reference" enables users to find articles that cite a
previously published work.
Two samples of articles published on scientific journals in the year 2002 were examined to
evaluate the number of citations received by each article over the 2002- 2006 period, both in GS
and in WoS. An analysis of unique and overlapping citations was performed.
Results show that retrieval of citations found in Web of Science was higher in 2005 than in
Google Scholar, while in 2006 the amount of citations retrieved has been almost equal.
Since resulting citations do not match exactly, due to the difference in type of
documentation considered by search algorithms, the two instruments can be seen as
complementary, although a high percentage of overlapping material results from this research.
| Keywords: | Open access, citation |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | E. Publishing and legal issues. > EB. Printing, electronic publishing, broadcasting. L. Information technology and library technology. H. Information sources, supports, channels. B. Information use and sociology of information. > BG. Information dissemination and diffusion. |
| ID Code: | 8271 |
| Deposited By: | Italian Staff, E-LIS |
| Deposited On: | 22 December 2006 |
| All fields: | Show all fields |
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