Google Scholar as a tool for discovering journal articles in library and information science

TL;DR

This study evaluates Google Scholar's coverage of core LIS journal articles from 2004-2006, highlighting its partial indexing and varying availability, and discusses its utility alongside traditional indexing services.

Contribution

It uniquely assesses not only whether articles are indexed in Google Scholar but also examines the types of access available for each article.

Findings

Google Scholar indexes only some LIS journals completely.

Availability of articles varies by publisher type.

Google Scholar is useful for finding full texts but cannot replace traditional indexing services.

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to measure the coverage of Google Scholar for the Library and Information Science (LIS) journal literature as identified by a list of core LIS journals from a study by Schloegl and Petschnig (2005). Methods: We checked every article from 35 major LIS journals from the years 2004 to 2006 for availability in Google Scholar (GS). We also collected information on the type of availability-i.e., whether a certain article was available as a PDF for a fee, as a free PDF, or as a preprint. Results: We found that only some journals are completely indexed by Google Scholar, that the ratio of versions available depends on the type of publisher, and that availability varies a lot from journal to journal. Google Scholar cannot substitute for abstracting and indexing services in that it does not cover the complete literature of the field. However, it can be used in many cases to easily find available full texts of articles already found using another tool. Originality/value: This study differs from other Google Scholar coverage studies in that it takes into account not only whether an article is indexed in GS at all, but also the type of availability.