Decrease in free computer science papers found through Google Scholar
| Date | 29 April 2014 |
| Published date | 29 April 2014 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-07-2013-0159 |
| Pages | 348-361 |
| Author | Lee A. Pedersen,Julie Arendt |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval |
Decrease in free computer
science papers found through
Google Scholar
Lee A. Pedersen
University Library, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA, and
Julie Arendt
VCU Libraries, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA
Abstract
Purpose – Informally computer scientists reported they could access free copies of research papers
they needed via tools such as Google Scholar. To ascertain whether this perception came from
widespread free access or from unnoticed employer-paid access, the purpose of this paper was to locate
computer science papers and determine what proportion was freely available using Google Scholar.
Design/methodology/approach – A sample of 1,967 conference papers and periodical papers from
2003 to 2010, indexed in the ACM Guide to Computing Literature, was searched for manually in
Google Scholar, using the paper or article title and the first author’s surname and supplementary
searches as needed.
Findings – Free full-text versions were found for 52 per cent of the conference papers and 55 per cent
of the periodical papers. Documents with older publication dates were more likely to be freely
accessible than newer documents, with free versions found for 71 per cent of items published in 2003
and 43 per cent of items published in 2010.
Research limitations/implications – Results were limited to the retrieval of known computer
science publications via Google Scholar. Future research could examine whether the decline found
in this study is specific to Google Scholar or reflects a decrease in the free sharing of research by
computer scientists.
Originality/value – Previous research for computer science found lower levels of free access than
this research determined, but the decline found in this study runs contrary to increases that have been
found. This research confirms many computer science papers are available for free but also that
subscription holdings are necessary for complete coverage of papers in the field.
Keywords Open access, Google Scholar, Computer science, Document versions
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
As information professionals who have served computer science communities at
universities, our users informed us that they could find research pap ers by searching
with Google or, more recently, Google Scholar. However, they still expected the
university to provide core computer science journals and conference proceedings.
We wanted to determine how easy it was to access the content of computer science
research publications by searching the web without subscription-based access through
the library.
Others have also noted a trend of faculty using free online papers. Some computer
science and engineering faculty interviewed at the College of New Jersey said that they
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1468-4527.htm
Received 3 July 2013
First revision approved
25 August 2013
Online Information Review
Vol. 38 No. 3, 2014
pp. 348-361
rEmeraldGroup Publishing Limited
1468-4527
DOI 10.1108/OIR-07-2013-0159
The authors are extremely grateful to Bernard Rous, Director of Publishing, Association of
Computing Machinery, for permission to retrieve records from the ACM Digital Library database
in a manner that exceeded ACM’s threshold against unauthorised activity levels.
348
OIR
38,3
To continue reading
Request your trial