DigiCMB

Image via Wikipedia Just spotted: Google Scholar Search Performance: Comparative Recall and Precision William H. Walters portal: Libraries and the Academy , Volume 9, Number 1, January 2009 , pp. 5-24 (Article) DOI: 10.1353/pla.0.0034 Abstract: This paper presents a comparative evaluation of Google Scholar and 11 other bibliographic databases ( Academic Search Elite , AgeLine, ArticleFirst, EconLit, GEOBASE, MEDLINE , PAIS International, POPLINE , Social Sciences Abstracts, Social Sciences Citation Index , and SocINDEX), focusing on search performance within the multidisciplinary field of later-life migration. The results of simple keyword searches are evaluated with reference to a set of 155 relevant articles identified in advance. In terms of both recall and precision , Google Scholar performs better than most of the subscription databases. This finding, based on a rigorous evaluation procedure, is contrary to the impressions of many early reviewers. The paper concludes wit...