Google Scholar Search Algorithm
While we discussed search engines in general in class, this articles focuses specifically on google’s scholarly article search engine. According to this study, which can be found here, the primary factor of which articles are prioritized are those that have been cited the most times. This leads to more standard literature articles being found. In addition, if the search words appear in the articles title, they are more likely to be at the top of a search. The number of times that the search words appear in the text do not matter. The algorithm also only searches for words in the search term and not synonyms. Recent articles were also weighed more than older articles this study found. The algorithm also weights certain journals greater than others. While google does not release their exact algorithm information, this study is useful to both researchers and authors who want their articles to be found. With this information, one can better know how to increase their chances of finding the right article or making their article more popular.
This article relates to web structure and web network that we learned about in class. While there is more to it than just the simple hubs and authorities we did in class, the articles on google scholar can be seen as the authorities and the works where they were cited as hubs. The number of articles that point to the study increases their page rank. Thus by using their “degree” and score (the number of times they’ve been cited) we can figure out how google scholar will page rank them.