Driving a big citation engine

D.A. Rew

The Internet has transformed the search for information. Those surgeons of a certain age will recall the dreary hunt for papers and references on library shelves and in printed citation indices, and the long wait for posted copies of prized documents from a far-flung reference library  while writing up a Masters Thesis.

No more! Just as Search Engines such as Google have made global access to public postings and documents on the Internet virtually instantaneous, so a number of competing systems, each with different characteristics, now provide search functions for academic papers, including peer reviewed papers, books, papers in trade journals, historical material, and multimedia material.

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