<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><sec><h3>Purpose</h3><p>The purpose of this study is to investigate the historical and linguistic coverage of Google Scholar, using publications in the field of Roman law as an example.</p></sec><sec><h3>Design/methodology/approach</h3><p>To create a dataset of Roman law publications, we retrieved a total of 21,300 records of publications, published between years 1500 and 2016, with title including words denoting “Roman law” in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.</p></sec><sec><h3>Findings</h3><p>We were able to find publications dating back to 1727. The largest number of publications and authors date to the late 19<sup>th</sup> century, and this peak might be explained by the role of Roman law in French legal education at the time. Furthermore, we found exceptionally skewed concentration of publications to authors, as well as of citations to publications. We speculate that this could be explained by the long time-frame of the study, and the importance of classic works.</p></sec><sec><h3>Research limitation</h3><p>Major limitations, and potential future work, relate to data quality, and cleaning, disambiguation of publications and authors, as well as comparing coverage with other data sources.</p></sec><sec><h3>Practical implications</h3><p>We find Google Scholar to be a promising data source for historical bibliometrics. This approach may help bridge the gap between bibliometrics and the “digital humanities”.</p></sec><sec><h3>Originality/value</h3><p>Earlier studies have focused mainly on Google Scholar's coverage of publications and citations in general, or in specific fields. The historical coverage has, however, received less attention.</p></sec></abstract>

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the historical and linguistic coverage of Google Scholar, using publications in the field of Roman law as an example.Design/methodology/approachTo create a dataset of Roman law publications, we retrieved a total of 21,300 records of publications, published between years 1500 and 2016, with title including words denoting “Roman law” in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.FindingsWe were able to find publications dating back to 1727. The largest number of publications and authors date to the late 19th century, and this peak might be explained by the role of Roman law in French legal education at the time. Furthermore, we found exceptionally skewed concentration of publications to authors, as well as of citations to publications. We speculate that this could be explained by the long time-frame of the study, and the importance of classic works.Research limitationMajor limitations, and potential future work, relate to data quality, and cleaning, disambiguation of publications and authors, as well as comparing coverage with other data sources.Practical implicationsWe find Google Scholar to be a promising data source for historical bibliometrics. This approach may help bridge the gap between bibliometrics and the “digital humanities”.Originality/valueEarlier studies have focused mainly on Google Scholar's coverage of publications and citations in general, or in specific fields. The historical coverage has, however, received less attention.

Historical Bibliometrics Using Google Scholar: The Case of Roman Law, 1727–2016

Swedish School of Library and Information Science

Journal of Data and Information Science

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the historical and linguistic coverage of Google Scholar, using publications in the field of Roman law as an...

Historical Bibliometrics Using Google Scholar: The Case of Roman Law, 1727–2016

Article Category: Research Paper

Published Online: Jul 03, 2020

Page range: 18 - 32

Received: Jan 28, 2020

Accepted: Jun 11, 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jdis-2020-0024

Keywords
Historical bibliometrics, Google Scholar, Roman law

© 2020 Janne Pölönen et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Historical Bibliometrics Using Google Scholar: The Case of Roman Law, 1727–2016

Article Category: Research Paper

Published Online: Jul 03, 2020

Page range: 18 - 32

Received: Jan 28, 2020

Accepted: Jun 11, 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jdis-2020-0024

KeywordsHistorical bibliometrics, Google Scholar, Roman law

© 2020 Janne Pölönen et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
Historical bibliometrics, Google Scholar, Roman law