Google Scholar is making it very easy to track (their measure of) citation counts, h-index, etc. for individual researchers. Is this changing how academics are evaluated? Do tenure committees now bring up google scholar profiles, or do they continue to prefer other sources for citation data? Is there pressure to make your Google Scholar profile public?
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Yes, promotion and hiring committees look at Google Scholar, especially in fields like computer science where Google's citation data is more comprehensive than other sources like Scopus, which misses many citations of and by conference papers. In this respect, Google Scholar hasn't really changed the way people are evaluated, though; we've just replaced one unreliable (and expensive) source of questionable statistical data with a slightly less unreliable (and free) source for almost (but not quite) the same data. Much more importantly, though, Google Scholar makes it easier to find electronic copies of papers, which makes it easier for committees to judge each candidate's work directly. In this respect, Google Scholar has had a significant impact. |
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During the last evaluation at our department, all staff members were encouraged to make their Google Scholar profiles public. |
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Since the criteria is the same (citation count, H-index, G-Index...) I think Google Scholar is not changing anything, just making much easier to find/evaluate; therefore it might have a considerable impact. But should be noted that, due to many errors like mixing authors with similar names and counting citations that shouldn't be counted, Google Scholar can't be used as a definitive source of evaluation. Recently I have found Microsoft Academic Search more useful. |
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