Google Scholar

Abstract

You've heard of Google, but have you ever heard of Google Scholar? Chances are you haven't. Google Scholar is a Google product still under development, even though it has been around since 2003. Unlike Google, which searches as much of the Web as possible, Google Scholar restricts itself to what it considers “scholarly” Web sites. So, what does Google consider schol-arly? That's a bit of a mystery, but there are a couple of general areas Google Scholar covers:

• • Journal articles

• • Other scholarly databases

• • Institutional repositories

• • Higher education Web sites

• • Patents

In medicine, Google Scholar can be hit or miss. It contains a large number of PubMed citations, but not all of them, nor are the citations particularly current. Google also worked with many of the scientific, technical, and medical print and online publishers like Elsevier (Science Direct), HighWire, Wiley (InterScience), and the Nature Publishing Group to include their journal articles.