• Login
    About WHOAS
    View Item 
    •   WHOAS Home
    • Marine Biological Laboratory
    • Boston University Marine Program (BUMP)
    • View Item
    •   WHOAS Home
    • Marine Biological Laboratory
    • Boston University Marine Program (BUMP)
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Browse

    All of WHOASCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesKeywordsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesKeywords

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    Statistics

    View Usage Statistics

    The relative ineffectiveness of bibliographic search engines

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    Valielai0006-3568-55-8-688.pdf (458.6Kb)
    Date
    2005-08
    Author
    Valiela, Ivan  Concept link
    Martinetto, Paulina  Concept link
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Citable URI
    https://hdl.handle.net/1912/1365
    As published
    https://doi.org/10.1641/0006-3568(2005)055[0688:TRIOBS]2.0.CO;2
    DOI
    10.1641/0006-3568(2005)055[0688:TRIOBS]2.0.CO;2
    Keyword
     Search engines; Scientific publications; Bibliographic searches 
    Abstract
    The increasing number of scientific publications has made bibliographic search engines essential tools in all disciplines. These software-based devices, however, are far from perfect. Comparisons of software-based bibliographic search engines with complete lists of three authors' publications showed that reference citations were not generally available before 1970, and that the effectiveness of recovery was improving but was quite variable, yielding on average 36 percent of the publications. There was marked year-to-year inconsistency in the recovery of titles. The inconsistency could not be explained by differences in indexing due to journal reputation: there was no evident relationship between search effectiveness and journal impact factor, but the percentage of recovered citations was higher for indexed journals. Search engines are widely used in bibliographic searches performed for evaluating researchers, awarding promotions, or assessing journal performance. Given the ineffectiveness of search engines, their use in making such important personal and institutional decisions needs careful consideration.
    Description
    Author Posting. © American Institute of Biological Sciences, 2005. This article is posted here by permission of American Institute of Biological Sciences for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Bioscience 55 (2005): 688–692, doi:10.1641/0006-3568(2005)055[0688:TRIOBS]2.0.CO;2.
    Collections
    • Boston University Marine Program (BUMP)
    Suggested Citation
    BioScience 55 (2005): 688–692
     

    Related items

    Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.

    • Thumbnail

      Computer bibliographic searching: downloading and uploading using a microcomputer. 

      Wible, Joseph G. (IAMSLIC, 1985)
    • Thumbnail

      Advanced Engineering Lab project summaries 1991 

      Frye, Daniel E. (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1993-01)
      The Advanced Engineering Laboratory of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a development laboratory within the Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering Department. Its function is the development of oceanographic ...
    • Thumbnail

      Advanced Engineering Laboratory project summaries 1993 

      Frye, Daniel E. (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1994-12)
      The Advanced Engineering Laboratory of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a development laboratory within the Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering Deparment. Its function is the development of oceanographic ...
    All Items in WHOAS are protected by original copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated. WHOAS also supports the use of the Creative Commons licenses for original content.
    A service of the MBLWHOI Library | About WHOAS
    Contact Us | Send Feedback | Privacy Policy
    Core Trust Logo