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Our Databases versus Google Scholar

While San Juan College Library does provide a link to Google Scholar on our homepage, it is preferred that you use some of our academic databases such as EBSCO, Gale, and Proquest.

Google Scholar is a popular tool for academic research, but it has several disadvantages:

  1. Lack of Comprehensive Coverage: While Google Scholar indexes a wide range of academic sources, it does not cover all scholarly publications. Some publishers do not allow Google to index their content, leading to incomplete search results.

  2. Quality Control Issues: Google Scholar does not rigorously vet the quality or credibility of sources it indexes. As a result, search results can include non-peer-reviewed materials, predatory journal articles, or poorly cited sources that may not meet academic standards.

  3. Limited Advanced Search Features: Unlike specialized databases, Google Scholar offers limited options for advanced searches, such as filtering by specific disciplines, methodologies, or study designs. This can make it difficult for researchers to conduct precise searches or exclude irrelevant results.

  4. Citation Inaccuracies: The citation counts and metrics provided by Google Scholar are often inflated due to errors like counting non-scholarly citations or duplicate records. This can lead to misleading assessments of an article's impact or a scholar's influence.

  5. Paywall Access: Many of the articles indexed by Google Scholar are behind paywalls, meaning users need subscriptions or institutional access to view the full text. This limits the accessibility of resources, especially for independent researchers.

  6. Lack of Human Curation: Unlike some academic databases managed by experts in the field, Google Scholar relies on automated algorithms to index content. This lack of human curation can result in less reliable relevance ranking and potential inclusion of low-quality sources.

  7. Data Privacy Concerns: Google collects data on users' search habits, raising privacy concerns for researchers who want to maintain confidentiality in their research topics and browsing behaviors.

These disadvantages highlight the need for researchers to use Google Scholar cautiously and in conjunction with other, more specialized academic databases and libraries.