Implementing Creative Approaches within Google Scholar’s Advanced Search Interface to Retrieve Higher Likelihood for Journal Articles: A Quantitative Study into Google Scholar’s Lack of Format Limiters
This quantitative study seeks out creative approaches (CA) to solve some of Google Scholar’s shortcomings, notably a lack of clear database controls for resource format selection, along with an absence of a peer-reviewed button. As the primary endeavor, the research proposal targets three (theology-...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2025
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| In: |
Journal of religious and theological information
Year: 2025, Volume: 24, Issue: 1, Pages: 1-27 |
| RelBib Classification: | CF Christianity and Science FA Theology ZG Media studies; Digital media; Communication studies |
| Further subjects: | B
total results
B Theology B library science B Searching B periodicals B scholarly peer review B quantitative research B Multidisciplinary |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This quantitative study seeks out creative approaches (CA) to solve some of Google Scholar’s shortcomings, notably a lack of clear database controls for resource format selection, along with an absence of a peer-reviewed button. As the primary endeavor, the research proposal targets three (theology-specific) research questions at Google Scholar to discover if certain techniques bring back a higher likelihood of journal articles. As a secondary concern, do the same approaches help readers identify peer-reviewed articles? In its findings, the CAs impacted the overall research questions differently. As intended, CA-3A and CA-3B both removed capstone papers from the search results; however, CA-3B cut too many journal articles, whereas CA-3A only reduced journal formats marginally. Successfully, all three variations of CA-4 deducted some book titles without affecting the journal formats; CA-4A performed the most helpful in both outcomes. For CA-5, it labeled journal articles with high precision, though not systematically. CA-5 also reflected the only approach of any value to assist detecting a peer-reviewed journal title. Lastly, all three CA-6 approaches considerably reduced the size of the search results. Notably, CA-6B aggressively removed book formats, while not inadvertently throwing out journal articles. Key terms: Academic dissertations; academic librarianship; book format; Boolean searching; comparative studies; database searching; Google Scholar; information retrieval |
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| ISSN: | 1528-6924 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of religious and theological information
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/10477845.2024.2307737 |



