Web impact factors and search engine coverage

Author: Thelwall, Mike

Source: Journal of Documentation, Volume 56, Number 2, 2000 , pp. 185-189(5)

Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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Abstract:

Search engines index only a proportion of the web and this proportion is not determined randomly but by following algorithms that take into account the properties that impact factors measure. A survey was conducted in order to test the coverage of search engines and to decide whether their partial coverage is indeed an obstacle to using them to calculate web impact factors. The results indicate that search engine coverage, even of large national domains is extremely uneven and would be likely to lead to misleading calculations.

Keywords: Search Engines; World Wide Web

Document Type: Research article

Publication date: 2000-02-01