I created an account in Google Scholar some time ago because someone recommended that I do this. I've noticed recently that Scholar, like Amazon or Ebay, is trying to figure out what I want or like. My favorite Amazon recommendation, by the way, and one worth repeating since I likely mentioned in in a prior blog post, was this: "Sign up to receive an alert when Pliny the Elder publishes any new works." This, of course, is not particularly likely since he died in AD 79 during the volcanic eruption of Mt Vesuvius. Even Pliny the Younger (61-113) has been gone a long time now. In some instances, the recommendations from Scholar are right on target - I was alerted to a newly published work that compared accelerometer validation with self-reported exercise participation (Evenson et al., 2015, doi: 10/1186/s12966-015-0183-7) that is of great interest to me. Other times, the relationship between the recommendations and my actual interests is tenuous at best, and reminds me of my AC/DC music channel on Pandora. I never used to like AC/DC all that much when I was young; I have to admit now that I was not a big fan of former singer Bon Scott. I have since come to appreciate the nuance in his lyrics and interpretation of the same, although I tend to prefer the current Brian Johnson era that began with the seminal work "Back in Black." So when Pandora asks me what I like and I respond AC/DC, I can think of two things that fit into that category: AC/DC when Bon Scott sang and AC/DC with Brian Johnson on lead vocals. However, as Pandora likes to do, tried to toss out things it assumes I'll like. Some of these were things I liked - I seem to recall hearing a T Rex song on my AC/DC channel. I consider that luck; probably most T Rex fans do not care for AC/DC and vice versa.
The last straw, however, was the Bon Jovi tune. I guess in the most liberal sense that there is some relationship in that Bon Jovi and AC/DC had hit records during the same era. But there is something fundamentally different between those two bands - I do not have exactly the words to describe it, but I have a very strong sense of this. I think it is probably highly likely that people who like one are not fans of the other. So I really don't know how the Pandora algorithm works (although I was likewise disturbed when Phil Collins was offered on my Peter Gabriel channel - Phil is the anti-Pete in my mind) and I'm a little worried if the Google Scholar algorithm works the same way. And, frankly I think a lot of people already tend to be lazy in their efforts at persistent searching, the last thing we need is for people to think that Google Scholar knows best!
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AuthorI am Sheryl L. Chatfield, Ph.D, C.T.R.S. I am a member of the faculty in the College of Public Health at Kent State University. I also Co-coordinate the Graduate Certificate in Qualitative Research and I am a member of the Design Innovation Team at Kent State. Archives
February 2024
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