To conclude, google scholar is a useful tool and can (should) be used. This holds true to keep track of research productivity for scholars, specially because of increased competition. However, it’s extremely important to be ethical. At times, google scholar add things to profile automatically.
For three big reasons: Lack comprehensive information. Google Scholar is designed to search wide, not deep. When you’re trying to learn about a specific market, you need in-depth information, not disparate bits and pieces that leave holes in your research, making you look uninformed.
Google Scholar’s coverage is is wide-ranging but not comprehensive. It can be a research source, but should not be the only source you use. Google Scholar does not provide the criteria for what makes its results ” scholarly” .
What are some criticisms of Google Scholar?
An early criticism was that Google Scholar did not have the same coverage as other databases, but a 2017 study showed that this was no longer as much of an issue (Halevi, Moed, & Bar-Ilan, 2017). This database is a citation index, meaning you can search the number of times an article has been cited by other people.
One good use of Google Scholar is that it incorporats a ranking algorithm that can be helpful when you are learning a new field: for example, if you search for “economic sociology” in Google Scholar, the list returns pages of important and central texts to the subfield, so you can quickly get a sense.
You may be asking “What are the limitations of Google Scholar?”
Google Scholar does not allow users to limit results to either peer reviewed or full text materials or by discipline. Google Scholar does not provide notice of when its materials are updated. Google Scholar’s citation tracker can be difficult to use and inaccurate.
Is Google Scholar a replacement for other library research databases?
In my experience, Google Scholar is not a replacement for other library research databases (those available through EBSCOhost, Web of Science, etc.). These have particular strengths, and are essential tools. Google Scholar is useful not only as a supplement to these, but also because it has its own particular strengths.