From: Cynthia Porter <[log in to unmask]> Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2012 12:44:39 -0700 Thank you Ken, I'm glad you asked this question. I've been thinking about Google Scholar lately. I work in a medical library and I like searching in PubMed because it converts keywords to Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), so it goes beyond a keyword search (e.g., I search "heart attack" but I get all the articles with the MeSH "Myocardial infarction"). Doesn't Google Scholar depend on matching keywords? Several times I have encountered full text links to journal articles in Google Scholar for items that are not available online from our library. I think that some of these resources were posted without publisher consent. Is it wrong to refer a student to this online resource? I've sent the link to students, but not a copy of the document. This practice just doesn't feel right to me. I guess I could tell the student to search it themselves in Google Scholar, but I don't like it when people tell me to "Google it." Cynthia Cynthia Porter [log in to unmask] Distance Support Librarian A.T. Still Memorial Library, Arizona Mesa, AZ 85206 On Wed, Sep 12, 2012 at 3:48 AM, LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > From: Ken Masters <[log in to unmask]> > Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2012 14:13:00 +0400 > > Hi All > > When conducting literature reviews, especially systematic literature > reviews, academic researchers usually consult a number of data bases > (Medline, EBSCO, etc.). Given that Google Scholar indexes so much, is > there any reason to use these other data bases at all, rather than to > simply go to Google Scholar? > > I am aware that some of these data bases allow for a more detailed > type of search (e.g. terms found in abstract only, etc), but if I were > doing a search for all articles that have, for example, "mobile > learning" in the their text, would it not make more sense to simply > perform that initial search in Google Scholar, and ignore the other > academic databases? What reference could they offer me that Google > Scholar doesn't? > > (And yes, I'm aware, that Google Scholar will pull up far more grey > literature, but that is part of the manual sifting process that I > would have to perform anyway.). > > Does anyone know of a comparison study that has been performed? > > Thanks. > > Regards > > Ken > > Dr. Ken Masters > Asst. Professor: Medical Informatics > Medical Education Unit > College of Medicine & Health Sciences > Sultan Qaboos University > Sultanate of Oman > E-i-C: The Internet Journal of Medical Education