Results list
How to use the query results list in Publish or Perish
The results list displays all results for the current (or first) selected search. By default, the list is sorted by descending number of citations, but you can sort it on any of the columns by clicking on the corresponding column header. Clicking for a second time on the same column header reverses the sort order.
To set a default sorting order, use the Tools > Preferences command from the main menu, then go to the Results tab and set the Defaults results sorting order option.
You can exclude individual results by clearing their check box; alternatively, use the Edit > Check all, Edit > Check selection, Edit > Uncheck all, Edit > Uncheck 0 cites, and Edit > Uncheck selection commands to check or uncheck groups of results. When you select or unselect results, the citation metrics in the Metrics pane are immediately updated to reflect the remaining results.
If you double-click on an item in the list, Publish or Perish opens your web browser and displays the article's online abstract or full text for the selected item, if any. If an item does not have an online version, its citations or a general search results page is displayed for the item.
The list contains the following columns (see Accuracy of the results for ways of spotting potential problems in this list):
| Tag | Used for | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Cites | Number of citations | A small 'h' icon appears in front of all result items that contribute to the h-index. |
| Per year | Citations per year |
Calculated as the total number of citations divided by the age of the article (i.e., the number of years since publication). If the year of publication is not available, this column shows 0.00. |
| Rank | Result ranking | This is the order in which the data source returned the results (1=first, 2=second, etc.). Typically, earlier ranked entries indicate more relevant search results. An irregular rank order when the list is sorted by Cites might indicate that the list contains irrelevant results. |
| Authors | Author names | |
| Title | Title | |
| Year | Year of publication | This field might be wrong or missing if the data source did not return a recognizable year. |
| Publication | Journal name or similar | Not always available; sometimes wrong if the data source results are mixed up. |
| Publisher | Publisher | Not always available; sometimes wrong if the data source results are mixed up. |
Popup menu
If you right-click anywhere in the results list, a popup menu appears with additional commands that apply to the currently selected results or to the search as a whole.
Note: These commands apply to the currently displayed set of results only. If you want to copy data from several searches at once, use the popup menu commands from the searches list. As an alternative, you can also export the data in a variety of formats.
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
| Open in Browser | Opens the currently selected article in your web browser. This command is only available for some items (depending on the information that Google Scholar provided) and may actually open the abstract rather than the full article. |
| Open Citations in Browser | Opens the web page that lists the referencing articles for the current item, if available. In absence of that, opens the "related" web page, if available. |
| Lookup Citations in Publish or Perish |
Gathers the citing references and displays their information in a new Citing references search. |
| Split Citations | If the currently selected results line consists of merged items, undoes the merge. The original items are shown again in the list. This command is only available for merged items. |
| Copy as CSV | Copies the results to the Windows clipboard in CSV (comma-separated value) format. You can then paste this into other applications for further processing. |
| Copy as CSV with Header | Does the same as the previous command, but precedes the statistics with an extra line that contains the names of the fields, also in comma-separated format. |
| Copy for Excel | Copies the results to the Windows clipboard in tab-separated format. You can then paste this into other applications for further processing, and in particular into spreadsheet applications such as Microsoft Excel, OpenOffice Calc, and SoftMaker's PlanMaker. |
| Copy for Excel with Header | Does the same as the previous command, but precedes the statistics with an extra line that contains the names of the fields, also in tab-separated format. |
| Save As BiBTeX... | Saves the currently checked citations in BibTeX format, encoded as Unicode UTF-8. |
| Save As CSV... | Saves the currently checked citations in comma-separated format, encoded as Unicode UTF-8. |
| Save As EndNote... | Saves the currently checked citations in EndNote Import format, encoded as Unicode UTF-8. |
| Save As RefMan/RIS... | Saves the currently checked citations in Reference Manager (RIS) format, encoded as Unicode UTF-8. |
| Select All | Selects (i.e., highlights) all items in the results list. Alternatively, press Ctrl+A. |
| Check All | Checks all items in the results list. |
| Check Selection | Checks all selected (i.e., highlighted) items in the results list. |
| Uncheck All | Unchecks all items in the results list. Alternatively, press Ctrl+U. |
| Uncheck Selection | Unchecks all selected (i.e., highlighted) items in the results list. |
| Uncheck 0 Cites | Unchecks all results that have 0 citations. Alternatively, press Ctrl+0 (that's zero, not Oh). |
| Uncheck CITATION results | Uncheck all results that have Type CITATION and recalculate the citation metrics. These are results to which Google Scholar found references, but for which the original work was not found online. This happens for many books and book chapters, or for non-print works such as software programs. It may also indicate that the reference that Google Scholar found misquoted the original publication's details or appeared in a format that Google Scholar could not parse correctly. |
Merging of results
If you think that one or more separate result items really refer to a single article or book, you can merge them in the results list. You do this by dragging one item and dropping it onto another; the resulting item has a small "double document" icon (see screen shot above). This process can be repeated as often as you like.
In all cases, the following apply:
- The merged information uses the title, authors, etc. information from the target item (the one onto which the other items are dropped).
- The merged item's total citations are the sum of all constituent items. The citation metrics are updated accordingly.
- The merge persists until you perform the Lookup [Direct] command on the parent query.
- You can un-merge the item by right-clicking on the item and choosing Split Citations from the popup menu.
Copyright © 2023 David Adams. All rights reserved. Page last modified on Wed 26 Jul 2023 09:27
Web master of Harzing.com and developer of the Publish or Perish software, among other things. He holds BSc and MSc degrees in Electrical Engineering, a PhD in Operations Research, and likes to watch academic life from a safe distance.
