Table 1 Limitations of current published research on the usability of Google Scholar for medical purposes

Not testing for systematic reviews

[13–16, 18, 22–26]

Limited number of searches

[14–16, 24–26]

Relevancy of results only determined by the authors

[13, 14, 16, 23, 25, 26]

Not reviewing the first 1,000 hits in Google Scholar

[15, 16, 18, 19, 21, 22]

Only using searches designed by the authors

[14–16, 21, 22]

Searches not comparable between the databases

[15, 16, 23, 25]

Published more than five years ago

[13, 14, 23, 24]

Only searching for known items

[13, 14, 19]

Only looking at coverage, not retrieval

[19]