Google Scholar (or Google Academy) is a search network for students, lecturers and scientists that indexes scientific works from many fields. Every registered user has the opportunity to create their own author profile, where all research materials available on the Internet will be displayed.
It is important to note that it is not entirely correct to use the term “Google Scholar database”, as the platform is not a database in the classical sense. It is an information aggregator that contains various sources.
What is Google Academy used for?
Google Academy acts as a consolidated and global source of information that is used by scientists for various research purposes:
- formation of an integrated academic CV
- tracking of overall scientometric indicators
- selection of scientific literature similar to a bibliographic manager
- advanced search for scientific information, which includes different types of content (articles, monographs, conference abstracts) and the ability to use regional languages
- notifications about new research in a particular field through subscription to materials
The platform provides an opportunity to comprehensively work through scientific materials from the planning stage to indexing. The main functional capabilities of Google Scholar:
- search for articles
- subscription to authors of interest
- saving materials to a library
- adding your own works to the platform
- tracking the dynamics of publication activity and citation indicators
The Google Scholar author profile contains information about the most significant aggregated scientometric indicators. Therefore, monitoring them is one of the most important aspects of a researcher’s activity.
Citation and h-index in Google Scholar: key metrics
The main indicators of an author’s activity, prestige and authority to focus on within Google Scholar:
- Citation index – essentially, an indicator of the significance of a work and its influence among fellow researchers both in Georgia and worldwide.
- h-index – a metric calculated as the ratio of the number of works to their citations.
Also, within Google Scholar, the i-index indicator is calculated, which is not as popular in the scientometric world. Some sources classify it as a modification of the h-index in the context of identifying the most cited works.
If you need to increase scientometrics indicators within the Google Scholar platform, contact the specialists of Scientific Publications. We will conduct a comprehensive audit of the author profile, assess all technical nuances, provide full support and ensure an increase in indicators to the required level.
