Recent SLIS graduate Ulrich "Tibaut" Houzanme (MLS ’12) presented at this year's International Conference on Science and the Internet. The conference, held in August in Dusseldorf, Germany, addressed topics regarding the influence of online media in scholarly practices.

Ulrich’s presentation was titled: “Google Scholar versus Google Scholar: Among Publish or Perish, Scholarometer, and My Citations, Which Citation Count Tool Is Telling Which Truth?”

Abstract:
Three of the four tools that use Google Scholar (GS) as a data source were used to identify citations from 30 of the most influential information scientists (fifteen from the United States and fifteen from the United Kingdom). Scholarometer is the best to recommend when considering all factors studied. Though My Citation ranked second overall, it is the best tool only when the data are available. Publish or Perish was clearly the least effective, with numerous problems related to author name disambiguation and discipline categorization. Further investigations of publications and citation sources are suggested, on the one hand, and the use of, at least two citation extraction tools (My Citation & Scholarometer), for meaningful comparison and more accurate conclusions, recommended on the other hand.

In an email interview, Ulrich thanked SLIS faculty members for their advice and support. He commented:

“It was a great summer in Germany and a long and fun trip. I treasured the interactions with the more experienced researchers present there. The presentation sessions with ‘discussants’ was sort of different and interesting, as it allows for engaged discussions and pertinent questions. My thanks to the group of junior researchers from Heinrich-Heine-Universität that put it all together. No doubt that it was hard work, and I congratulate them on that success."

Posted October 30, 2012