ONLINE SEARCHING FOR PROFESSIONAL OR ACADEMIC PURPOSES – PART II September 2007 L. Codina. UPF Interdisciplinary CSIM Master Academic Search Engines 1

ONLINE SEARCHING FOR PROFESSIONAL OR ACADEMIC PURPOSES – PART II

September 2007L. Codina. UPF Interdisciplinary CSIM Master

Academic Search Engines1

Summary

Academic Search Engine Characterization Inputs:

Information sources Kind of documents

Output: Types of retrieved documents (access)

Main academic search Engines Google Scholar Scirus Live Academic


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Inputs: Information sources

Typology of institutions or corporations web sites indexed by the A-SE

Universities (.edu sites) Research centres (NASA, RAND, etc.) Government (sites related with science,

technology, etc.) Journal and book publishers Library collections Digital repositories (e-prints, e-books, etc.)


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Inputs: Typology of documents

1. Web pages (and any kind of documents: pdf, word, etc.) published in web sites

2. Articles of peer review journals (both open access and subscription-based access)

3. Academic works, like dissertations, thesis, etc.

4. Patents5. Books6. References (not the full text document, only

the bibliographic reference)


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Output: Types of Retrieved Documents

The retrieved documents in the search engine results page may be: Free (web pages, open access peer review journal

articles, etc.) Free if you are in the campus or connected to the

campus network (articles of the peer review journal that are subscribed by your University)

Not free: by payment because the journal is not subscribed by your university (articles of the peer review subscription-based journal)

References only (not the document: you have to find out the full text document by other ways)


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The main Academic-Search Engines

Google Scholar (Google)scholar.google.com

Scirus (Elsevier)www.scirus.com

Academic Live (Microsoft)academic.live.com


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Google Scholar - I

Google Scholar Inputs:

All sources and types, except patents Special features:

Citation analysis, ranking and navigation options


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Google Scholar - II


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Scirus - I

Scirus Inputs:

All sources and types, except books and references Special features:

The search facilities, the characteristics of the results page, the diversity of sources, the access to full text patents and the total amount of available information


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Scirus II


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Live Academic - I

Live Academic Inputs:

All sources, except patents Special features:

Visualization, sort and exportation options in the results page


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Live Academic - II


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Ranking by amount of information

1. Scirus2. Google Scholar3. Live

A simple test. Keyword: hypertextNumber of results in: Scirus: 615,695 documents Google Scholar: 252,000 documents Live: 12,153 documents


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Conclusions - I

Databases vs. search engines: What is the different role of each system?

Academic databases (subscription-based): Indispensable if you need to legitimate your work (for example, for

a dissertation or to submit a paper to a peer review journal) If you want to be sure about the state of art in your field The most trustworthy information

Academic Search Engines (free-access): The most up to date information Quickly and easy access to information Useful information: more practical, more understandable, more

direct and academic-jargon free, etc. (but at your risk) In addition, they contain, partially, the same documents that

academic databases (but it is not sure and it is at a very different proportion, depending the field).


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Conclusions - II

Academic database will be essential for you for the reasons mentioned in previous slide… but the crude truth is that Academic Search Engines will make your life more easier.

In other words: probably, you will want to use search engine because its easiness, and probably you will not want to use databases because its (relative) difficulty, but you have to use it.

So… fortunately or unfortunately you will need both


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