http://www.int-res.com/articles/esep2008/8/e008pp5.pdf
ABSTRACT: Traditionally, the most commonly used source of bibliometric data is Thomson ISI Web
of Knowledge, in particular the Web of Science and the Journal Citation Reports (JCR), which
provide the yearly Journal Impact Factors (JIF). This paper presents an alternative source of data
(Google Scholar, GS) as well as 3 alternatives to the JIF to assess journal impact (h-index, g-index and
the number of citations per paper). Because of its broader range of data sources, the use of GS generally
results in more comprehensive citation coverage in the area of management and international
business. The use of GS particularly benefits academics publishing in sources that are not (well) covered
in ISI. Among these are books, conference papers, non-US journals, and in general journals in
the field of strategy and international business. The 3 alternative GS-based metrics showed strong
correlations with the traditional JIF. As such, they provide academics and universities committed to
JIFs with a good alternative for journals that are not ISI-indexed. However, we argue that these
metrics provide additional advantages over the JIF and that the free availability of GS allows for a
democratization of citation analysis as it provides every academic access to citation data regardless
of their institution’s financial means.
Filed under: Google, bibliometrics | Tagged: bibliometrics, citation analysis, Google scholar
