Review of Google scholar, Web of Science, and Scopus search results: The case of inclusive education research

Abstract

This study presents a bibliometric analysis of research on inclusive education focusing
on the development, scholarly publishing, and various influences on the body of knowledge
(information sources, authors, institutions, and countries). Data for this study were collected
from three reference and citation-enhanced indexing databases, i.e., Google Scholar, Scopus,
and Web of Science. There was diversity in terms of variations of results from one database to
the other. This research will be valuable for academia and researchers alike in the field of
inclusive education. The researchers in scholarly communication research area, policy
makers, and those involved in measuring researchers’ performance for promotions and awards
on the basis of publications and citations indicators may also benefit.

Full text

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Review of Google scholar, Web of Science, and Scopus search
results: The case of inclusive education research
Syed Rahmat Ullah Shah
PhD Scholar, Swedish School of Library and Information Science,
Högskolan i Borås, Sweden
rahmatgee@yahoo.com
Khalid Mahmood
Professor, Department of Information Management (DoIM),
University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan
khalidmahmood@yahoo.com
Abdul Hameed
Dean, School of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSS&H),
University of Management and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan
drhameed_pk@yahoo.com
Abstract
This study presents a bibliometric analysis of research on inclusive education focusing
on the development, scholarly publishing, and various influences on the body of knowledge
(information sources, authors, institutions, and countries). Data for this study were collected
from three reference and citation-enhanced indexing databases, i.e., Google Scholar, Scopus,
and Web of Science. There was diversity in terms of variations of results from one database to
the other. This research will be valuable for academia and researchers alike in the field of
inclusive education. The researchers in scholarly communication research area, policy
makers, and those involved in measuring researchers’ performance for promotions and awards
on the basis of publications and citations indicators may also benefit.
Key words
Inclusive education; Scholarly communication; Citation analysis; Bibliometrics
Introduction
Bibliometric studies show that there is a high increase in scientific publishing. No
research indicators in the last half century illustrated a decline in the scientific publishing.
Many new publishing channels in different forms are being introduced in addition to the
traditional publishing in books and peer review journals (Larsen & von Ins, 2010). Publication
of research results for dissemination of scientific knowledge is a common scholarly practice.
Reference and citation-enhanced databases; Google scholar, Web of Science, and Scopus,
provide scientometric indicators to help researchers to find their relevant as well as useful
information and its resources. These scientometric indicators on citation databases are being
used as performance, quality, and achievement measures of researchers by university
administrations for promotions and rewards. It is a problematic situation and of serious
concern to researchers’ community (Nelhans, 2014).
Previous studies have addressed various aspects of these citation databases. Many
researchers generally compared these reference databases with each other (Bergman, 2012).

Franceschet (2010) presented a bibliometric coverage of computer sciences in the databases.
Yang and Meho (2006) compared the content coverage and available features for faculty
ranking in a social sciences discipline, i.e., library and information science. Citation counts
and citing sources for specific information source (e.g. book) have also been discussed in
scholarly literature (Bar-Ilan, 2010). In the same way, some researchers used these databases
in discussions related to research evaluation (Tahira, Alias, & Bakri, 2012). Further, some
researchers used these citation data for their bibliometric studies, citation analysis, and
research visualization presentations (Jarneving, 2006). However, no study could be found that
compared various influences within the research area on the basis of citation counts on these
reference and citation-enhanced databases like Google scholar, Web of Science, and Scopus.
This study is an attempt to fill this research gap.
Inclusive education research area was selected as a particular case in this research.
Although the concept of inclusive education is comparative new but it has produced a body of
knowledge in a reasonable size. On the other hand, this area has been neglected in
bibliometric studies. The present research has evaluated the coverage of inclusive education
research in Google Scholar, Web of Science, and Scopus. The findings have illustrated
various influences and aspects of the development of the literature of inclusive education.
Potential beneficiaries of this study are academia and researchers working in the area of
inclusive education for identification of main authors, information sources, and their
influences in the research area. It is of practical use for award, promotion, and funding bodies
that consider bibliometric indicators of these databases as valuable measures for researchers’
evaluation. Further, this study may stimulate further research in the areas of scientometrics
and bibliometrics for proper use of researchers’ productivity measures, quality evaluation, and
better handling of research awards or rewards.
Literature review
Many studies presented comparison and contrast of different features in citation-
enhanced databases, i.e., Google Scholar, Web of Science, and Scopus. Bergman (2012),
Falagas et al. (2008), Jasco (2005) and Li et al. (2010) compared content coverage and
practical utility of these databases. They concluded that these citation indices differ from one
another in one way or the other. Bar-Ilan (2010) stepped forward in concluding that Google
Scholar lacked about one third of total citing sources for single book as compared to sum of
citing source counts from both Scopus and Web of Science.
Scholarly productivity, publishing, and citation patterns in disciplines under sciences,
social sciences, and humanities have great differences (Nederhof, 2006). It has direct effect on
the output of search results on these reference extended databases. In pure and applied
sciences, Falagas et al. (2008) stated that Google Scholar has often considerably less citations
as compared to Web of Science and Scopus. Bakkalbasi et al. (2006) concluded that no single
citation index satisfies all citation needs in oncology and condensed matter physics.
Franceschet (2010) stated that citation based ranking for both authors and journals do not
change in computer sciences.
In social sciences disciplines, Meho and Yang (2007) and Yang and Meho (2006) were
convinced that inclusion of Google Scholar citation data into Web of Science and Scopus
results provided more accurate and comprehensive scenario of authors’ impact in ranking of
library and information science faculty. Mingers and Lipitakis (2010) found that Web of
Science had poor coverage for business and economics disciplines while Google Scholar had
comparatively better coverage for these disciplines. Bergman (2012) conducted a research for
social work discipline and came up with results that Web of Science was not a better covering
source for that discipline.

Bibliometric indicators for ranking of scholarly published sources like specific books,
journals, or universities have dissimilar results on these citation databases. Levine-Clark and
Gil (2008) compared citation counts for business and economics journals. They concluded
that collective use of alternate tools give better results instead of using any from citation tool.
Bar-Ilan (2010) counted citing sources for a single book on these three indices and remarked
that almost one third citating sources were not included in citing sources searched through
Google Scholar. Aguillo (2011), in a webometric analysis of universities, found that
universities in countries like China, Brazil, Spain, Taiwan and Indonesia were of far higher
ranking due to non inclusion of low ranking scholarly journals in Web of Science and Scopus.
Aguillo had quality concerns in considering Google Scholar as a good bibliometric tool. We
can summarize the findnings of previous studies by concluding that these reference-extended
databases are not a good source for ranking information sources and institutions in social
sciences.
Research questions
On the basis of literature review and a consideration of various aspects of these
databases (Google Scholar, Scopus and Web of Science) following research questions were
designed for this study:
1. What is the development situation in the inclusive education research?
2. What is the publication pattern in the inclusive education research?
3. What is the influence position in the inclusive education research?
Research design and procedure
Research data for this bibliometric study were collected from three citation databases
(Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar). Keywords used in the search strategy include
“inclusive education,” “inclusive learning,” “Inclusion (Education)” and “inclusive schools.”
The Web of Science Core Collection (Indexes: SCI-EXPANDED, SSCI, A&HCI, CPCI-S,
CPCI-SSH.) provided 1,296 results including articles (930), proceedings papers (191), book
reviews (73), reviews (34), and book chapters (1). Other document categories of meeting
abstract (43), editorial material (33), letter (1), correction (1), correction addition (1), and
biographical item (1) were excluded. Thus, there was a sum of 1,216 results for further
analysis. Similarly, Scopus provided 2,278 results including articles (1,679), reviews (222),
conference papers (154), Book chapters (112), and book (46). Document results reduced to a
sum of 2,213 for onward analysis. Google scholar had 15,400 search hits during 1990 to 2014
excluding patents and citations. Google scholar year wise results were downloaded by using
Publish or Perish (2007) software. Finally, data for all years were combined on single Excel
worksheet. Data duplications were checked and results with corrupted download were deleted.
Finally, data sets and results from WoS and Scopus were included as per descriptions by
official websites while Google scholar data set and results were compiled and interpreted after
necessary calculations using Microsoft Excel.
Results
A summary of the Web of Science results is given in Table 1. Descriptions in Figure 1
were about total productivity and in Figure 2 details were about citations in each year in the
research area of inclusive education. It was clear that research productivity was declining. On
the other side there was increasing trend towards citations. Citation data for the year 2015 was
of continuing year. Year 2015 was delimited from the analysis of the literature growth
because it was not finished yet.

Table 1. Bibliometric indicators regarding inclusive education research in Web of Science
Indicators
Statistics
Results found
1216
Sum of the time cited
5318
Sum of times cited without self-citation
3936
Citing articles
3514
Citing articles without self-citations
2994
Average citations per item
4.37
h-index
30
Figure 1. Published items in each year (all years) on inclusive education research in WoS
Figure 2. Citations in each year (all years) on inclusive education research in WoS
Figure 3 showed per year citations as per Scopus results. Like WoS, the Scopus results
also presented continuous increase in citations with the passage of time. Citation details made
it clear that influence of inclusive education research was in phases of continuous
development.

Figure 3. Citations per year as provided by Scopus data
Per year citations details of Google scholar results were shown in Figure 4. Contrary to
WoS and Scopus search results, Google scholar did not present any developmental sequence
during last decade. Further, it became clear from declining citation trend that this research
area had faced its continuous decline of influence in research and scholarly literature. It was
also observed that the first decade of twenty first century was the best period for citations or
influence of inclusive education research.
Figure 4. Citations in each year (all years) on inclusive education research by Google Scholar
Tables 2 and table 3 present an overview of inclusive education publications in two
databases, i.e., Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus. There was a continuous decline in
publications during recent years in WoS while Scopus results presented inclusive education as
a progressive research area in terms of yearly publications. Six of top 10 journals were
published from UK followed by USA (three journals in WoS). Similarly, key authors who
wrote and published their research had different appearances in WoS and Scopus. This change
in sequence was due to issues like comparatively less coverage of social sciences research
publications in WoS and comparatively more coverage of social sciences and their related
subject areas in Scopus. The results on contributing organizations show that USA was leading
with four universities followed by UK with three universities in WoS. Conversely, in Scopus,
UK was leading with four universities followed by Australia with two universities. Although
inclusive education research was led by countries like USA and UK yet there was
considerable contribution of small countries like Hong Kong, Norway, and Sweden. Like
well-established and penetrated research areas, inclusive education research was mingled with
different subject areas.
Table 2. Top 10 inclusive education search results for various categories retrieved from Web
of Science.
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014

Rank
Year
(Doc.)
Source/Journal
(Documents) (Country*)
Author
(Doc.)
Organization
(Documents)
Country
(Doc.)
Subject
(Documents)
1
2012
(189)
International Journal of
Inclusive Education (211) (UK)
Pijl, S. J.
(16)
Hong Kong Instt.of
Edu.(22)
USA
(291)
Education Edu.
Research (891)
2
2013
(179)
Disability Society (57) (UK)
Forlin, C.
(15)
Univ. Birmingham
(18)
UK
(203)
Rehabilitation
(239)
3
2014
(167)
Procedia Social and Behavioral
Sciences (51) (UK)
Engelbrecht,
P. (10)
Univ. Groningen
(18)
Australia
(114)
Psychology (98)
4
2010
(122)
European Journal of Special
Needs Education (30) (UK)
Sharma, U.
(10)
Univ. Manchester
(18)
Spain (75)
Social Sc. Other
Topics (85)
5
2011
(112)
Revista De Educacion (30)
(Spain)
Florian, L.
(8)
Monash University
(16)
S. Africa
(65)
Computer
Science (50)
6
2009
(77)
Teaching and Teacher
Education (28) (UK)
Kozleski, E.
B. (8)
Univ. Illinois (16)
Canada
(49)
Sociology (23)
7
2008
(54)
Remedial and Special
Education (24) (USA)
Miles, S. (8)
Syracuse University
(15)
China (45)
Engineering (19)
8
2007
(42)
International Journal of
Disability Development and
Education (23) (UK)
Minnaert,
A. (7)
Columbia
University (14)
Norway
(36)
Psychiatry (16)
9
2006
(35)
Journal of the Asso. for Persons
with Severe Handicaps (18)
(USA)
Naraian, S.
(7)
Univ. Edinburgh
(13)
Netherla.
(33)
Business
Economics (12)
10
2001
(29)
Res. and Pract. for Persons with
Severe Disabilities (16) (USA)
Slee, R. (7)
Univ. Kansas (13)
Scotland
(28)
Pub.Env. Occ.
Health (10)
Table 3. Top 10 inclusive education search results for various categories retrieved from
Scopus.
Rank
Year
(Doc.)
Source/Journal
(Documents) (Country*)
Author
(Doc.)
Organization
(Documents)
Country
(Doc.)
Subject
(Documents)
1
2014
(325)
International Journal of
Inclusive Education (267) (UK)
Forlin, C.
(28)
Monash University
(43)
USA
(429)
Social Sciences
(1758)
2
2013
(302)
European Journal of Special
Needs Education (88) (UK)
Sharma, U.
(25)
Univ. Manchester
(41)
UK (407)
Psychology (368)
3
2012
(289)
International Journal of Special
Education (61) (Canada)
Pijl, S. J.
(19)
Hong Kong Instt. of
Edu. (37)
Australia
(203)
Medicine (341)
4
2011
(219)
Journal of Research in Special
Educational Needs (46) (UK)
Loreman T.
(18)
University of
London (31)
Spain
(120)
Arts and
Humanities (246)
5
2010
(237)
RevistaBrasileira De Educacao
Especial (40) (Brazil)
Slee, R. (15)
Queensland Uni. Of
Technology (24)
Brazil
(113)
Health
Professions (238)
6
2009
(155)
Disability and Society (40)
(UK)
Florian, L.
(13)
NorgesTeknik-
Naturvitenskapelige
Universitet (22)
S. Africa
(108)
Computer
Science (114)
7
2008
(119)
British Journal of Special
Education (33) (UK)
Engelbrecht,
P. (13)
Open University
(21)
Canada
(96)
Engineering (39)
8
2007
(104)
Revista De Educacion (31)
(Spain)
Deppeler, J.
(13)
Rijksuniversiteit
Groningen (19)
Norway
(67)
Nursing (37)
9
2006
(91)
Teaching and Teacher
Education (28) (UK)
Norwich, B.
(12)
Syracuse University
(19)
Sweden
(50)
Eco.,Econometr.
and Finance (36)
10
2005
(69)
Res. and Pract. for Persons with
Severe Disabilities (28) (USA)
Humphrey,
N. (12)
University of
Edinburgh (18)
Hong
Kong (46)
Bus., Man. and
Accounting (34)
Table 4 shows description of top 10 inclusive education search results for various
categories retrieved from Google Scholar. There was no chronological sequence regarding
production of documents in inclusive education research. Most of the documents (921) were
produced in 2010 followed by the year 2013. Data for the year 2014 were included but
production strength could not fall under top 10 years with respect to productivity. Top 10
influential sources had mostly books (eight books) and fewer research articles (two research
articles). Author’s affiliations in top 10 influential source documents were from USA and UK.
Authors of four books and one research article included in top 10 influential resources were
from USA and UK. Top 10 influential research journals in inclusive education were from UK
(5), Korea (2), China (1), USA (1), and Canada (1).

Table 4. Top 10 search results about inclusive education research retrieved from Google
Scholar
Rank
Year
(Doc.)
Source (Type) (Citations) (Country)
Journal (Docs) (Country)
1
2010
(921)
Salvia, J., Ysseldyke, J., Bolt, S. (2012). Assessment: In Special and
Inclusive Education. 12th ed., Boston: Wadsworth Publishing Co. (Book)
(1570) (USA)
International Journal of
Inclusive Education. (516)
(UK)
2
2013
(899)
Booth, T., Ainscow, M. (2002). Index for inclusion: Developing learning
and participation in schools. Bristol: Index for inclusion: Developing
learning and participation in schools. (Book) (870)(UK)
Chinese Journal of Special
Education. (241) (China)
3
2011
(892)
Thomas, C. (1999). Female forms: Experiencing and understanding
disability. Philadelphia: Open University Press. (Book) (788) (UK)
특수교육연구 (i.e.
Special education) (90)
(Korea)
4
2012
(877)
Sherrill, C. (1998). Adapted physical activity, recreation and sport: Cross
disciplinary and lifespan. Boston: McGraw-Hill Co. (Book) (783) (USA)
British Journal of Special
Education. (UK) (80)
5
2009
(852)
Fuchs, D. & Fuchs, L. S. (1994). Inclusive schools movement and the
radicalization of special education reform. Exceptional Children, 60(4),
294-309. (Journal article) (871) (USA)
Support for learning. (UK)
(72)
6
2000
(515)
Ainscow, M. (1999). Understanding the development of inclusive schools.
London: Falmer Press. (Book) (737) (UK)
European journal of
special needs education.
(UK) (71)
7
2005
(500)
Avramidis, E. & Norwich, B. (2002). Teachers' attitudes towards
integration/inclusion: A review of the literature. European Journal of
Special Education Needs, 17(2), 129-147. (Journal article) (734) (UK)
교육공학연구 (i.e.
Education Engineering
Research) (Korea) (68)
8
2002
(500)
Friend, M. & Bursuck, W. D. (2002). Including students with special needs:
A practical guide for classroom teachers. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. (Book)
(726) (USA)
Disability & Society.
(UK) (63)
9
2004
(492)
Ball, S., Maguire, M., & Macrae, S. (2013). Choice, pathways and
transitions post-16: New youth, new economies in the global city. Hoboken:
Taylor and Francis. (Book) (694) (UK)
Teaching exceptional
children. (USA) (56)
10
2003
(471)
Turnbull, A. P. (1995). Exceptional lives: Special education in today's
schools. New Jersey: Merrill (Book) (681) (USA)
Exceptionality Education
Canada. (Canada) (48)
Inclusive education research data from Web of Science (Table 5) show that the major
research articles were written by authors from universities in USA. Out of top 10 highly cited
research articles, authors of five research articles were from USA, followed by three from
UK, and two from Canada. In the same way, Table 4 shows top 10 most sited results retrieved
from Scopus. Authors of five research articles were from UK, seconded by three from USA,
and one each from Australia and Norway.
A comparison of results about leading research articles from Google scholar, Web of
Science and Scopus showed that Google scholar had two journal articles among top 10
influential sources. WoS indexed one journal and Scopus indexed the other journal.
Therefore, from Google Scholar search results out of these two search hits of articles, one
article was on top of WoS results while the other was on the top of Scopus results. Neither
Scopus nor Web of Science had both of the articles that popped up in Google Scholar search.
In Google Scholar all other influential sources were books that completely fell out of scope of
both WoS and Scopus.
Table 5. Top 10 cited papers in inclusive education in WoS
Cited Reference (Citations)(Country)
Fuchs, D. and Fuchs, L. S. (1994), Inclusive Schools Movement and the Radicalization of Special Education Reform.
Exceptional Children, 60(4), 294-309. (229)(USA)
Riehl, C. J. (2000). The principal's role in creating inclusive schools for diverse students: A review of normative, empirical,
and critical literature on the practice of educational administration. Review of Educational Research, 70 (1), 55-81.(78)(USA)
Lindsay, G. (2007). Educational Psychology and the Effectiveness of Inclusive Education/Mainstreaming. British Journal of
Educational Psychology, 77, 1-24. DOI: 10.1348/000709906X156881 (75)(UK)
Hunt, P. & Goetz, L. (1997). Research on Inclusive Educational Programs, Practices, and Outcomes for Students with Severe
Disabilities. The Journal of Special Education, 31(1), 3-29. DOI: 10.1177/002246699703100102 (72)(USA)

Lage, M. J., Platt, G. J., &Treglia, M. (2000). Inverting the Classroom: A gateway to Creating an Inclusive Learning. The
Journal of Economic Education, 31, 30-43. DOI: 10.1080/00220480009596759 (69)(USA)
Lightfoot, J., Wright, S., & Sloper, P. (1999). Supporting Pupils in Mainstream School with an Illness or Disability: Young
people’s views. Child: Care, Health and Development, 25(4), 267-284. DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-2214.1999.00112.x (58)(UK)
Stanovich, P. J., & Jordan, A. (1998). Canadian teachers' and principals' beliefs about inclusive education as predictors of
effective teaching in heterogeneous classrooms. The Elementary School Journal, 221-238. (48)(Canada)
Kennedy, C. H., Shukla, S., &Fryxell, D. (1997). Comparing the effects of educational placement on the social relationships
of intermediate school students with severe disabilities. Exceptional Children, 64(1), 31-47. (46)(USA)
Humphrey, N., & Lewis, S. (2008). Make me normal: The views and experiences of pupils on the autistic spectrum in
mainstream secondary schools. Autism,12(1), 23-46. (46)(UK)
Pivik, J., McComas, J., &Laflamme, M. (2002). Barriers and facilitators to inclusive education. Exceptional children, 69(1),
97-107. (46)(Canada)
Table 6. Top 10 cited papers of inclusive education research in Scopus
Cited Reference (Citations)(Country)
Avramidis, E. & Norwich, B. (2002). Teachers' attitudes towards integration/inclusion: A review of the literature. European
Journal of Special Education Needs, 17(2), 129-147. (236)(UK)
Lage, M. J., Platt, G. J., &Treglia, M. (2000). Inverting the Classroom: A gateway to Creating an Inclusive Learning. The
Journal of Economic Education, 31, 30-43. DOI: 10.1080/00220480009596759 (196)(USA)
Riehl, C. J. (2000). The principal's role in creating inclusive schools for diverse students: A review of normative, empirical,
and critical literature on the practice of educational administration. Review of Educational Research, 70 (1), 55-81.
(128)(USA)
Lindsay, G. (2007). Educational Psychology and the Effectiveness of Inclusive Education/Mainstreaming. British Journal of
Educational Psychology, 77, 1-24. DOI: 10.1348/000709906X156881 (108)(UK)
Hunt, P. & Goetz, L. (1997). Research on Inclusive Educational Programs, Practices, and Outcomes for Students with Severe
Disabilities. The Journal of Special Education, 31(1), 3-29. DOI: 10.1177/002246699703100102 (100)(USA)
Humphrey, N., & Lewis, S. (2008). Make me normal'The views and experiences of pupils on the autistic spectrum in
mainstream secondary schools. Autism,12(1), 23-46. (92)(UK)
Campbell, J., Gilmore, L., & Cuskelly, M. (2003). Changing student teachers’ attitudes towards disability and inclusion.
Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disability,28(4), 369-379. (83)(Australia)
Lightfoot, J., Wright, S., & Sloper, P. (1999). Supporting pupils in mainstream school with an illness or disability: Young
people’s views. Child: Care, Health and Development, 25(4), 267-283. (79)(UK)
Barton, L. (1997). Inclusive education: Romantic, subversive or realistic? International Journal of Inclusive Education, 1(3),
231-242. (79)(UK)
Vislie, L. (2003). From integration to inclusion: Focusing global trends and changes in the western European societies.
European Journal of Special Needs Education, 18(1), 17-35. (75)(Norway).
Discussion
A few biases of citation databases are identified in this study. Scopus is owned by
Elsevier that has head office in Netherlands and Web of Science is owned by Thomson
Reuters, with head office in USA. Their indexed contents are driven by individualistic
selection policies and practices (Elsevier, 2015; Testa, 2012). Users need subscription for
these databases. While Google Scholar is run by web crawler that compiles search results as
automated task and searching contents is free of cost (Google, 2015). Background facts of
these citation databases had clear reflections on results in this study. Broader picture from the
results of inclusive education research area emerged with American dominance through WoS;
predominantly high research productivity, most of the leading universities, more influential
authors, and more influential research journals, and Britain dominance through Scopus on the
same parameters. Conversely, Google Scholar presented geographically neutral results.
Regarding strengths and weaknesses of overall coverage and scope, this study confirms
results of the results of previous studies such as Bergman (2012), Li et al. (2010) and Jasco
(2005).
Both commercial citation databases showed inclusive education as progressive research
area in terms of research production as well as citation counts. Influential authors were of
research journal articles and influential information sources were only research journals. In
opposition, Google Scholar illustrated non-symmetry in year wise publishing of inclusive
education research and continuous decline in citations during the last decade. Moreover,

influential sources were books and book authors were of key influence in this research area.
These findings from Google Scholar are more realistic to very nature of a social science
discipline and are alike to research conducted by Nederhof (2006) who supported influences
of books and comparatively older citations in disciplines of social sciences.
Results in this study are contrary to the findings by Meho and Yang (2007) and Yang
and Meho (2006) who suggested that inclusion of Google Scholar results into Scopus and
Web of Science results give more accurate impact and ranking of authors. As mentioned
above, Scopus and Web of Science have geographic representation in their results. If
inclusion of Web of Science and Scopus results with automated system (i.e. Google Scholar)
are justified for accurate representation of search results then what is the reason for excluding
some other similar databases from China, Japan, or Korea.
Conclusion
Reference and citation-extended databases have their strengths and weaknesses. There is
no ‘one size fits all’ case in research. These databases are better sources in supporting
researchers for finding pinpointed and more relevant information with their discipline wise
merits and demerits. It is important that researchers should be aware of strengths and
weaknesses while using different databases in the course of conducting their research and
studies. No doubt, bibliometric indicators are of enormous value to researchers for in-depth
research and studies. Research in bibliometrics has well explained the impact of research and
scholarly publishing that is valuable for researchers in the field.
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