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Web search volume as a predictor of academic fame: An exploration of G oogle trends
Author(s) -
Vaughan Liwen,
RomeroFrías Esteban
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of the association for information science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.903
H-Index - 145
eISSN - 2330-1643
pISSN - 2330-1635
DOI - 10.1002/asi.23016
Subject(s) - search engine , reputation , limiting , volume (thermodynamics) , world wide web , information retrieval , web search engine , computer science , web search query , sociology , engineering , social science , physics , mechanical engineering , quantum mechanics
Searches conducted on web search engines reflect the interests of users and society. G oogle Trends, which provides information about the queries searched by users of the G oogle web search engine, is a rich data source from which a wealth of information can be mined. We investigated the possibility of using web search volume data from G oogle Trends to predict academic fame. As queries are language‐dependent, we studied universities from two countries with different languages, the U nited S tates and S pain. We found a significant correlation between the search volume of a university name and the university's academic reputation or fame. We also examined the effect of some G oogle Trends features, namely, limiting the search to a specific country or topic category on the search volume data. Finally, we examined the effect of university sizes on the correlations found to gain a deeper understanding of the nature of the relationships.