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3 Mar 2006

Why can't Google Scholar be like Open J-Gate / OAIster

This morning was frustating with Google Scholar.

I just wanted to get hold of some scholary literature on "Methods for Benchmarking Organisations". So, opened up Google Scholar and fired the first term - "benchmarking". Good - 149,000 hits to good quality looking literature. So, started clicking by one by one to see the hits. But, what is this?!! Almost every click was asking me to pay somewhere 20 to 40 Dollars to have the access to full text. Obiously - this is the locked up knowledge for me. What is the use of these wonderful hits to high quality literature when I can not view them.

Next I opened up Open J-Gate and fired the same term "benchmarking". Had to wait for the results. Ultimately got the result - 216 hits. This served my purpose. Not that these pointed to high quality papers. But I got what I wanted in return for what I could afford to pay for. No wasting of time in clicking and waiting to learn that I can't afford to buy the stuff.

Later found that OAIster gave 1674 hits for the same term. But then, all Open/Free Access literature may not be OAI compliant.

Why can't Google creates a service for just Open/Free Access Scholary Literature and name it as OpenScholar?. Its better technology can help small mortals like me.

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