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In a blog posted on April Fool’s Day, Google announced a new feature to its Scholar service. This was no prank. It was the genuine debut of a new tool called Google Scholar Metrics. The service follows the same principle that has made Google’s web search engine so successful – when you are unsure what a user is looking for, give them a list of options ranked by a metric of popularity. In this instance, the users are academics ready to submit their next breakthrough but are uncertain which journal to choose. The solution Scholar Metrics offers is a database summarizing the sway of the distributors of scholarship “to help authors as they consider where to publish their new research“.

http://www.significancemagazine.org/details/webexclusive/1788885/Google-starts-ranking-journals.html?goback=%2Egde_126125_member_108215611