RESEARCH ARTICLE


Using Search Engine Count Estimates as Indicators of Academic Impact: A Web-based Replication of Haggbloom et al.’s (2002) Study



Matthias Spörrle1, *, Andranik Tumasjan2
1 University of Applied Management (UAM), Am Bahnhof 2, D-85435 Erding, Germany
2 Technische Universität München, Leopoldstr. 139, D-80804 München, Germany


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Creative Commons License
© 2011 Spörrle and Tumasjan.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode). This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the University of Applied Management (UAM), Am Bahnhof 2, D-85435 Erding, Germany; Tel: +49 (8122) 955 948 0; Fax: +49 (8122) 955 948 49; E-mail: matthias.spoerrle@fham.de


Abstract

Using a complex set of quantitative and qualitative indicators of scientific importance, Haggbloom et al. [1] compiled a ranking of the most eminent psychologists of the 20th century. The present study set out to replicate this rankordered list using simple search engine count estimates (SECEs) obtained from three popular internet search engines. In line with our expectations, our results revealed a small, but significant relationship between SECEs and the existing offline ranking when the query specified the scientist’s field of research (i.e., psychology). Our results imply that SECEs may be considered easy to apply indicators of a researcher’s impact.

Keywords: Scientometrics, internet, search engines, impact, scientific eminence, psychologist.