Google Scholar. Occasionally we are asked about using Google Scholar and Google Scholar data to populate VIVO. Is there an API? Are there open source tools for harvesting Google Scholar data? Are there licensing restrictions? Google Scholar does a good job of scanning the web looking for authors' works and using uses sophisticated heuristics to assemble collections of works for authors. Many faculty curate their Google Scholar collection, thereby enriching the data. Google has a global Terms of Service document that covers all of its services. In that document it says "Do not misuse our services." The key questions then are what constitutes a service, and what constitutes misuse? We asked Google representatives specifically about the use of Google Scholar data in VIVO. Their answer was very clear. The Google Scholar service can only be used by an end user using a browser. Google Scholar data can not be harvested by software, or repurposed in VIVO or other systems. This is unfortunate, but at the present time, Google Scholar is not a source of data for VIVO.
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