Re: [Ref-Links] economic effects of link-based search engines on e-journals (Eric Hellman) Marcia Tuttle 02 Oct 2000 14:54 UTC
---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sun, 1 Oct 2000 10:38:44 -0400 From: Eric Hellman <eric@OPENLY.COM> Subject: Re: [Ref-Links] economic effects of link-based search engines on e-journals At 10:04 AM +0100 10/1/00, Stevan Harnad wrote: >Eric's observation below, about google's link-frequency-based rankings >is fine for web-wide commerce. But it would be more useful and relevant >for researchers if a special, google-style search engine were devised >that searched only the refereed research literature on keywords, and >then returned results on the basis of citation-link-frequency (i.e., >the most cited papers on that keyword first). I observe that google, AS IT EXISTS TODAY, works quite well in returning useful and relevant results in areas (such as nitride semiconductor research) where the content is available for spidering. The assertion that a special purpose engine would be MORE useful is a marketing claim made by Northern Light which I have not tested. The interesting thing to me is that by virtue of its interlinked-ness, scholarly literature tends to rank high in google even without prefiltering. In some cases, interference is a problem. For example, if you try to look for InN (indium nitride), you get a lot of hotels and Bed-and-Breakfasts. Google is uncanny. For example, it knows to classify "Harnad" in the category "Logic and Ontology:Natural Kinds". > >For this, the refereed (and pre-refereeing) literature needs to be: > >(1) identifiable by agreed upon meta-data tagging: > http://www.openarchives.org Good, but not strictly essential. It is a matter of current controversy in the search engine community as to whether metadata is useful at all in open, automated environments. Of course meta tagging is very useful for other applications. > >(2) online (preferably full-text and free): > http://www.eprints.org Necessary, but not sufficient. Content must also be available to robots. The Los Alamos Archive is a prominent example of a site where robots are unwelcome. > >and > >(3) fully citation-linked: > http://opcit.eprints.org > Again, necessary, but not sufficient. The links must be robot-friendly. Feel free to contact me if you want details; this is a technical subject. Eric Eric Hellman, Journalkeeper for The MRS Internet Journal of Nitride Semiconductor Research Materials Research Society 506 Keystone Drive Warrendale, PA 15086 phone: 724-779-3004 ext 620 fax: 724-779-8313 MIJ-NSR Operations Office Openly Informatics, Inc. 10 Columbus Ave., Suite C Montclair, NJ 07042 phone/fax 1-973-509-7800