Featured Post

BFRC

I am posting this as a benchmark, not because I think I'm playing very well yet.  The idea would be post a video every month for a ye...

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Google Scholar

Bauerlein makes the argument in the Chronicle that there is too much scholarship in the Humanities, that this scholarship is not cost-effective. He uses google scholar to make his point. Now there seems to be a contradiction here, in that pointing to the low numbers of citations that many articles get invests these citations with a value that they do not have, in Bauerlein's own view. in other words, if a piece of scholarship has no intrinsic worth, then it cannot be accorded value simply because other, equally worthless scholarly articles cite it.

My most influential article, one that I know for a fact has defined a debate in my field, has only 13 citations on google scholar. Because of this article, I was well-known in Spain even before Apocryphal Lorca. Many people disagree with this article, but that's ok with me, because you can't be deliberately controversial and then expect agreement.

Some of these citations are me, citing my own article. Others don't seem to be citing me at all, or cite me only tangentially. Apocryphal Lorca has two citations, one from another article by me and one from the introduction to the special issue on Lorca in which my article appears. I guess the impact of this book is also non-existent, even though numerous people have written to me about it, how they have used in their courses, etc...

4 comments:

Thomas said...

It's interesting. Sometimes I feel that I'm obligated to find some way of citing Apocryphal Lorca in order to leave a trace of the impact it's had on my thinking. It's a kind of guilt. I feel it about other writers too.

Jonathan said...

I expect your next organization studies paper to have a citation to Apocryphal Lorca. Seriously, though I can measure the impact anecdotally, even when the citations lag far behind.

Anonymous said...

Hunh. Had never searched myself. Also topping out at 13. But most does not even appear. It quite shows what is popular, I will say, and this is interesting. Nothing appears except what I did for fun, things I wasn't "supposed" to do.

Anonymous said...

Let's add:

1. The Chronicle is interested in destroying higher ed and so it publishes things like this.

2. Bauerlein doesn't seem to realize Google Scholar is not necessarily the best citation index -.