Ranking by relevance and citation counts, a comparative study: Google Scholar, Microsoft Academic, WoS and Scopus

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• dc.contributor.author Rovira, Cristòfol
• dc.contributor.author Codina, Lluís
• dc.contributor.author Guerrero Solé, Frederic
• dc.contributor.author Lopezosa, Carlos
• dc.date.accessioned 2019-10-07T07:38:06Z
• dc.date.available 2019-10-07T07:38:06Z
• dc.date.issued 2019
• dc.description.abstract Search engine optimization (SEO) constitutes the set of methods designed to increase the visibility of, and the number of visits to, a web page by means of its ranking on the search engine results pages. Recently, SEO has also been applied to academic databases and search engines, in a trend that is in constant growth. This new approach, known as academic SEO (ASEO), has generated a field of study with considerable future growth potential due to the impact of open science. The study reported here forms part of this new field of analysis. The ranking of results is a key aspect in any information system since it determines the way in which these results are presented to the user. The aim of this study is to analyze and compare the relevance ranking algorithms employed by various academic platforms to identify the importance of citations received in their algorithms. Specifically, we analyze two search engines and two bibliographic databases: Google Scholar and Microsoft Academic, on the one hand, and Web of Science and Scopus, on the other. A reverse engineering methodology is employed based on the statistical analysis of Spearman’s correlation coe cients. The results indicate that the ranking algorithms used by Google Scholar and Microsoft are the two that are most heavily influenced by citations received. Indeed, citation counts are clearly the main SEO factor in these academic search engines. An unexpected finding is that, at certain points in time, Web of Science (WoS) used citations received as a key ranking factor, despite the fact that WoS support documents claim this factor does not intervene.
• dc.description.sponsorship This research was funded by the project "Interactive storytelling and digital visibility in interactive documentary and structured journalism". RTI2018-095714-B-C21, ERDF and Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (Spain).
• dc.format.mimetype application/pdf
• dc.identifier.citation Rovira C, Codina L, ​Guerrero-Solé F, Lopezosa C. Ranking by relevance and citation counts, a comparative study: Google Scholar, Microsoft Academic, WoS and Scopus. Future internet. 2019;11(2):[22 p.]. DOI: 10.3390/fi11090202
• dc.identifier.doi http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/fi11090202
• dc.identifier.issn 1999-5903
• dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/10230/42397
• dc.language.iso eng
• dc.publisher MDPI
• dc.relation.ispartof Future internet. 2019;11(2):[22 p.]
• dc.relation.isreferencedby http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3381151
• dc.relation.projectID info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/3PN/RTI2018-095714-B-C21
• dc.rights © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
• dc.rights.accessRights info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
• dc.rights.uri https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• dc.subject.keyword ASEO
• dc.subject.keyword SEO
• dc.subject.keyword Reverse engineering
• dc.subject.keyword Citations
• dc.subject.keyword Google Scholar
• dc.subject.keyword Microsoft Academic
• dc.subject.keyword Web of Science
• dc.subject.keyword WoS
• dc.subject.keyword Scopus
• dc.subject.keyword Indicators
• dc.subject.keyword Algorithms
• dc.subject.keyword Relevance ranking
• dc.subject.keyword Citation databases
• dc.subject.keyword Academic search engines
• dc.title Ranking by relevance and citation counts, a comparative study: Google Scholar, Microsoft Academic, WoS and Scopus
• dc.type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
• dc.type.version info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion