Google Scholar Full of Holes?

In a recent issue of Library Journal, Dr. Peter Jacso from the University of Hawaii analyzes many of the problems he has identified using Google Scholar, in particular when it comes to citation analysis:

"A free tool, Google Scholar has become the most convenient resource to find a few good scholarly papers—often in free full-text format—on even the most esoteric topics. For topical keyword searches, GS is most valuable. But it cannot be used to analyze the publishing performance and impact of researchers."

Problems include what Jacso calls:

• phantom authors
• inflated numbers
• bad metadata
  

Earlier Library Boy posts about Google Scholar and other federated search tools include:

• Federated Search Symposium at the University of Calgary (February 6, 2006)
• HeinOnline Law Review Articles Now in Google Scholar (March 22, 2008)
• Google Scholar Uptake in Research Libraries (June 22, 2008)
• New Evaluation of Google Scholar (December 8, 2008)