Google Scholar : the new generation of citation indexes

Abstract

Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com/) provides a new method of locating potentially relevant articles on a given subject by identifying subsequent articles that cite a previously published article. An important feature of Google Scholar is that researchers can use it to trace interconnections among authors citing articles on the same topic and to determine the frequency with which a specific article is cited by others as it has a "cited by" feature. We will begin with an overview of how to use it for citation analysis, and then progress through advanced search techniques. This study also compares the citation counts provided by Web of Science and Google Scholar for articles in the field of Webometrics. We make several suggestions for improvement it. Finally, it concludes that Google Scholar provides a free alternative or complement to other citation indexes.