Search engines and the production of academic knowledge

Abstract

• This article argues that search engines in general, and Google Scholar in particular, have become significant co-producers of academic knowledge. Knowledge is not simply conveyed to users, but is co-produced by search engines’ ranking systems and profiling systems, none of which are open to the rules of transparency, relevance and privacy in a manner known from library scholarship in the public domain. Inexperienced users tend to trust proprietary engines as neutral mediators of knowledge and are commonly ignorant of how meta-data enable engine operators to interpret collective profiles of groups of searchers. Theorizing search engines as nodal points in networks of distributed power, based on the notions of Manuel Castells, this article urges for an enriched form of information literacy to include a basic understanding of the economic, political and socio-cultural dimensions of search engines. Without a basic understanding of network architecture, the dynamics of network connections and their intersections, it is hard to grasp the social, legal, cultural and economic implications of search engines. •

A comparative analysis reveals irreproducibility in searches of scientific literature

“…Google Scholar, on the other hand, should open its computer code to allow researchers to understand how hit lists are generated and how results are ordered. Google Scholar has been criticized by the scientific community for the obscurity of its search algorithms[22]. Although we acknowledge that this can be against business policies for some companies, we argue that compromises must be made for the sake of research integrity and scientific rigor.…”

Which Are the Tools Available for Scholars? A Review of Assisting Software for Authors during Peer Reviewing Process

“…We recognize them as tools directed to support the search for scientific information. At the same time, the use of academic databases is to cover more in-depth and specialized subjects [63,64]. Search engines are the primary source of online information, and the academic versions present additional features like benchmarking tools, rankings, and Scientometrics.…”

Knowledge of Metropolitan Governance in the South

“…In fact, relative to the size of the web a very small proportion of sites dominate the top rankings (Vaughan and Thelwall, ; Tomlinson et al ., ). For Introna and Nisselbaum (: 692) the ‘politics of the search engine matters’, while Van Dijck () argues that knowledge is co‐produced by the profiling and ranking systems of search engines in ways that are concealed to the user.…”