LibGuides: Scholarly Metrics : Google Scholar

Finding Citations on the Internet

This free resource tracks cited references to articles and other documents through information that can be found online. Unlike Web of Science, Google Scholar's process for locating cited references is purely automated. While this poses concerns about Google Scholar's lack of quality assessment of the cited references, Google Scholar can often pick up more cited references that are from conference presentations, government documents and reports, and foreign language publications. This may make Google Scholar a useful resource for citation searches in certain academic disciplines and specialties.

Tools Using Google Scholar Data

Publish or Perish
Publish or Perish is a downloadable tool to aggregate and analyze Google Scholar citation data. Its creators state that Publish or Perish is best used when one’s works are not in Web of Science. Metrics include: citation count, h-index, g-index, and a host of other metrics that can factor in such aspects as co-authorship, the age of cited references, and citation trends.
Citation Impact Discerning Self Citations (CIDS)
CIDS is similar to Publish or Perish in that it aggregates Google Scholar data, but focuses on metrics related to the impact of an author. CIDS computes metrics regarding the self-citation rate of authors, and provides typical author metrics (h-index, g-index, etc.) with self-citiations removed.

Using Google Scholar to Track Citations to Your Work

-Tutorial created by Edward Eckel, Western Michigan University