Upgrade StorageGoogle Scholar search: three simple suggestions for improvement
I like the Google Scholar search option, but too often it produces too strict a search command which results in no hits. Here are a couple simple suggestions for improvement that, for me at least, would result in a much better hit rate.
1. For chapters in edited volumes, search for first author instead of first creator.
This is simply a bug I would say. I have a chapter where the editors are mentioned first, followed by the author. The GS search puts the editor as author and finds nothing. For another chapter where author is also the first creator it does work.
2. Search for only the first n words of title
Titles are not always complete on GS. Longer titles in Zotero are also more likely to include subtitles, which are sometimes missing in GS. The way around this is to search for only the first n words. I propose to put n at four. In combination with year and author surname this will lead to very few if any false positives.
For example: this doesn't work (searching for full title). This does (searching for the first four words).
3. Search for author surname only
GS does not always have complete author names. So my Zotero database can be more detailed than what GS knows. Annoying if this results in no hits.
For example: This doesn't work (searching for author:Leonard author:M. author:Pole). But this does (searching for author:Pole).
1. For chapters in edited volumes, search for first author instead of first creator.
This is simply a bug I would say. I have a chapter where the editors are mentioned first, followed by the author. The GS search puts the editor as author and finds nothing. For another chapter where author is also the first creator it does work.
2. Search for only the first n words of title
Titles are not always complete on GS. Longer titles in Zotero are also more likely to include subtitles, which are sometimes missing in GS. The way around this is to search for only the first n words. I propose to put n at four. In combination with year and author surname this will lead to very few if any false positives.
For example: this doesn't work (searching for full title). This does (searching for the first four words).
3. Search for author surname only
GS does not always have complete author names. So my Zotero database can be more detailed than what GS knows. Annoying if this results in no hits.
For example: This doesn't work (searching for author:Leonard author:M. author:Pole). But this does (searching for author:Pole).