Earlier this year, we launched Scholar Metrics which provides an easy way for authors to quickly gauge the visibility and influence of recent articles in scholarly publications. Today, we are updating Scholar Metrics to make it easier for you to explore publications in research areas that you are interested in.

To get started, you can browse publications in broad areas like Engineering & Computer Science, Health & Medical Sciences, or Social Sciences. You will see the top 20 publications in the area ordered by their five-year h-index and h-median metrics. To see which articles in a publication were cited the most and who cited them, click on its h-index number.

To explore more specific research areas, select one of the broad areas, click on the "Subcategories" link and then choose one of the options. For example: Databases & Information Systems, Development Economics, Virology or Composite Materials.

We use a statistical model based on the articles published in the last five years to compute the set of publications associated with each research area. Recognizing the multi-disciplinary nature of many publications, our model allows a publication to be associated with more than one research area.

Browsing by research area is, as yet, available only for English publications. As previously, you can browse the top 100 publications in several languages. You can, of course, also search for specific publications by words in their titles.

Scholar Metrics currently covers articles published between 2007 and 2011. It only includes journal articles from websites that follow our inclusion guidelines, selected conference articles in Computer Science & Electrical Engineering and preprints from arXiv, SSRN, NBER, and RePEC. Scholar Metrics does not include publications with fewer than 100 articles, nor publications that received no citations in 2007-2011.

The metrics are based on citations from all articles that were indexed in Google Scholar as of November 15, 2012. Since our previous metrics were based on citations from all articles indexed as of April 1, 2012, the new numbers are expected to be a bit higher. Alas, that does not indicate that your favorite journal has become more influential over this short period.

For more details, see the Scholar Metrics help page.

Posted by: Helder Suzuki, Software Engineer

I remember writing research papers as a student and being frustrated at the tedium of formatting citations according to the strictures of the Modern Language Association.  Today we’re simplifying this process by adding the ability to copy-and-paste formatted citations from search results.  To copy a formatted citation, click on the “Cite” link below a search result and select from the available citation styles (currently MLA, APA, or Chicago):

You can also use one of the import links to import the citation into BibTeX or another bibliography manager.  We hope that simplifying the chore of citation formatting will let you focus on what you really want to work on: writing a great paper!

Posted by: James Connor, Software Engineer

Since Google Scholar launched nearly eight years ago, we’ve been helping people find the research they’re looking for.  But often the spark for discovery comes from making a new connection or looking in a direction that you hadn’t yet considered and that -- before your aha! moment -- you wouldn’t have known to look for.  Today we hope to start fostering these new connections with Scholar Updates.

We analyze your articles (as identified in your Scholar profile), scan the entire web looking for new articles relevant to your research, and then show you the most relevant articles when you visit Scholar.  We determine relevance using a statistical model that incorporates what your work is about, the citation graph between articles, the fact that interests can change over time, and the authors you work with and cite.  You don’t need to configure updates or enter any queries.  We’ll notify you about new updates by displaying a preview on the homepage and highlighting a bell icon on search results pages:

To get article updates relevant to your work, all you need to do is create a public Scholar profile. Article updates will automatically start to appear within a few days.

Posted by: James Connor, Software Engineer

Ever since we added legal search to Google Scholar, researchers have asked us to make it easy to find the most recent court opinions for their queries so that they can make sure they're up to date.

Today, we're adding an option to sort legal search results by date, the most recent appearing first. To see the latest results for your query, click on "Sort by date" in the sidebar.

You can also use the new sort option in combination with court and time restrictions as well as searching within citing documents. For example, opinions in California courts mentioning "terry stop", opinions mentioning "terry stop" in 2007-2008, and opinions and articles citing Terry v. Ohio.

Posted by: Anurag Acharya, Distinguished Engineer

Over the years, we’ve added several Scholar features to help researchers keep up with recent publications --  customized ranking for recent articles, email alerts and following author profiles. As the next step in this endeavor, today we are making it possible for you to search just the recent additions to the index. The search results are presented in date order, most recently added articles appearing first. To help you decide how far back you would like to scan, each search result indicates how long ago the article was added to the index.

To search recent additions, enter a search query as you normally do, and then click on “Recent additions” in the sidebar of the results page.

You can choose to search over just the abstracts (the common case) or entire articles. Our experience indicates that for search results presented in date order, searching over abstracts often allows you to find the key recent articles quickly.

Posted by: Anurag Acharya, Distinguished Engineer

We've recently been experimenting with a new modern look for Scholar search results. Many of you have already tried the new look and have offered valuable suggestions, which we've done our best to incorporate. Thank you for your time and patience!

It is time - gulp! - to launch the new modern look of our search pages and retire the old venerable look that has served researchers worldwide since our first release in 2004. Tried and true as the old look might be, it's time for a refresh.

The new modern look brings you improved aesthetics and easier access to frequently used search features. You can now search for recent papers with a single click in the sidebar. You can access advanced search features (for example: search by author) without leaving the search results page by clicking the arrow in the right of the search box.

Here's a quick overview of the changes:

We've made several adjustments based on feedback from the legal search user survey earlier this year. You can limit your search to specific jurisdictions by clicking in the sidebar of the search results page instead of navigating through advanced search. You can print legal cases in a cleaner, more streamlined format using the "Print" option in your browser.

We've also clarified the preferences, err, settings page by organizing it into sections, performed a minor facelift on pages that deal with configuration of email alerts, and next we'll be working on updating the author profile pages and help pages.

As announced last summer, we're unable to continue supporting older and infrequently used versions of Firefox (<3.6) and Internet Explorer (<7). If you're using an unsupported browser, we recommend updating your browser.

If you don't like our new modern look, or simply prefer to wait a little longer before switching, you can temporarily revert to the old venerable look. Please take a moment to let us know why the new modern look didn't work for you. We appreciate your time and value your feedback.

If you're wondering why you're still seeing the old look, that's probably because we're gradually rolling out the new look to all users. But you don't have to wait. You can beat the crowds and upgrade right away.

Posted by: Alex Verstak, Software Engineer

Most researchers are familiar with well-established journals and conferences in their field. They are often less familiar with newer publications or publications in related fields - there're simply too many! Today, we’re introducing Google Scholar Metrics: an easy way for authors to quickly gauge the visibility and influence of recent articles in scholarly publications.

To get started, you can browse the top 100 publications in several languages, ordered by their five-year h-index and h-median metrics. You can also search for publications by words in their titles. For example, [design], [international law], [salud], and [otolaryngology]. To see which articles in a publication were cited the most and who cited them, click on its h-index number.

Scholar Metrics currently covers many (but not all) articles published between 2007 and 2011. It includes journal articles only from websites that follow our inclusion guidelines as well as conference articles and preprints from a small number of hand-identified sources. For more details, see the Scholar Metrics help page.

Here is hoping Google Scholar Metrics will help authors worldwide as they consider where to publish their latest article.

Posted by: Helder Suzuki, Software Engineer