Paper Info
Title
Should Google Scholar be used for benchmarking against the professoriate in education?
Abstract
In the neoliberal environment of contemporary academia, an individual’s research rankings and outputs can shape their career security and progression. When applying for ongoing employment and promotional opportunities, academics may benchmark their performance against that of superior colleagues to demonstrate their performance in relation to their discipline. The H-index and citation rates are commonly used to quantify the value of an academic’s work, and they can be used comparatively for benchmarking purposes. The focus of this paper is to critically consider if Google Scholar be used for benchmarking against the professoriate in education, by weighting up issues of data reliability and participation. The Google Scholar profiles of full professors at top ranked universities in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States of America are analysed to explore how widespread Google Scholar use is in the education professoriate. Quartiles of impact are established in relation to H-index, with exploration of how gender is distributed across these quartiles. Limitations of using Google Scholar data are highlighted through a taxonomy of quality confounders, and the utility of Google Scholar as a legitimate tool for benchmarking against the professoriate in education is strongly challenged. As metrics continue to rise in their importance for academics’ job security and promotional prospects, reliance on metrics of dubious quality and uneven participation must be questioned.
Year
DOI
Venue
2020
10.1007/s11192-020-03691-3
Scientometrics
Keywords
DocType
Volume
H-Index, Benchmarking, Education, Google Scholar, Gender
Journal
125
Issue
ISSN
Citations 
3
0138-9130
0
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.34
0
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
margaret merga152.95
Sayidi Mat Roni200.34
Shannon Mason300.34