I just did my own little test. I searched both Google Scholar and PsycInfo for the phrase "implicit learning" (your results may vary). There was absolutely nothing dodgey about the results Google Scholar gave me (I checked the first 50 of several hundred thousand). All the journals one would expect to see. Somewhat more books (and books chapters) than I expected to see (perhaps 15%), but (to a first impression) fairly reliable looking sources. To my mind, book chapters that summarize areas are often good starting places for students just getting started in an area.
PsycInfo returned far fewer (just several thousand) items, but the top 50 were mostly from highly quality journals. The one really noticeable difference, however, was that it returned far, far more irrelevant items than Google Scholar did. I'm not sure how some of these got caught by the search engine. At first I thought I had simply made the mistake of not putting "implicit learning" in quotations marks, but when I went back and did that, I still got a raft of irrelevant citations. I also took ISI's "Web of Knowledge" for a spin on the same search. I got less than a thousand (885) returns, Again, I seemed to get a lot that was irrelevant to the topic I was interested in. The journals looked solid, though it seemed that there were more applied journals than with the other two engines. My conclusion: if I had to go for one, it would be Google Scholar. If I were not constrained to one, I'd check PsycInfo too. WoK is best if what you want is a list of article that have cited a particular article of the past. Regards, Chris -- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Canada 416-736-2100 ex. 66164 [email protected] http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ ========================== Patrick Dolan wrote: > > > > > Well... I don't use PsycINFO either. Almost never. And after a year or > two of using Scholar Google I started instructing my students to as > well (this is for an upper level Cognition class where the students' > final paper is a ~12 page review and proposal of some topic in > cognition - "cognitive implications of X"). > > There are lots of ways of researching a topic and I describe all of > them to my students, but scholar google is, IMHO, a great starting > place. This was heresy in my department ~4 years ago, but I think most > have come around to at least accepting it as ok. > Patrick > > > Patrick O. Dolan, Ph.D. > Associate Professor and Chair of Psychology > Drew University > Madison, NJ 07940 > 973-408-3558 > [email protected] > > >>> Sally Walters <[email protected]> 6/2/2010 2:54 PM >>> > > > > > I never use Google Scholar but my students often do, even after I > advise them to use PsycINFO. Can anyone point me towards any analyses > of the differences between them for students? My sense is that GS is > not as good but I'd love to show them something concrete. I will > create something myself if nothing exists already but am hoping not to > have to. > > thanks, > Sally Walters > Capilano U > > --- > > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>. > > To unsubscribe click here: > http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13443.99ec8b626a47132c52969dd081cdd808&n=T&l=tips&o=2868 > > <http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13443.99ec8b626a47132c52969dd081cdd808&n=T&l=tips&o=2868> > > (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) > > or send a blank email to > leave-2868-13443.99ec8b626a47132c52969dd081cdd...@fsulist.frostburg.edu > <mailto:leave-2868-13443.99ec8b626a47132c52969dd081cdd...@fsulist.frostburg.edu> > > > --- > > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>. > > To unsubscribe click here: > http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13132.a868d710aa4ef67a68807ce4fe8bd0da&n=T&l=tips&o=2873 > > <http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13132.a868d710aa4ef67a68807ce4fe8bd0da&n=T&l=tips&o=2873> > > (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) > > or send a blank email to > leave-2873-13132.a868d710aa4ef67a68807ce4fe8bd...@fsulist.frostburg.edu > <mailto:leave-2873-13132.a868d710aa4ef67a68807ce4fe8bd...@fsulist.frostburg.edu> > --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=2874 or send a blank email to leave-2874-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
