Scott ThompsonITI 220 Homework: Why Search Results DifferQuery: Cyberbullying

Google ScholarEBSCO Acad. Search Premier

Total Results2440124

1JS Chibbaro (duplicate)Jacobs, Niels C. L.

2M SniderCampbell, Marilyn A

3AM Schenk (duplicate)Schenk, Allison M (duplicate)

4A KoloffSeigfried-Spellar, Kathryn C

5Q LiRenati, Roberta

6JS CharkesSteffgen, Georges

7Q LiBurton, K. Alex

8M SniderSchenk, Allison M (duplicate)

9A TresniowskiAhrens, Deborah

10M Franek (duplicate)Araujo, Walter

11 Erdur-BakerLaw, Danielle M

12Q LiGradinger, Petra

13C GiannettiChibbaro, Julia S (duplicate)

14K TwymanIozzio, Corinne

15J HalliganHarkinson, Josh

16B SmithSturgis, Ingrid

17 Erdur-BakerAuerbach, Shira

18A KoloffFirth, Niall

19A GrzigMcDermott, Irene E

20K VarjasFranek, Mark (duplicate)

Total Duplicates3 (Chibbaro, Schenk, Franek)Duplicate AuthorsSchenk GS 3 and EBSCO 8 match, EBSCO 3 dif articleFranek same author, dif articles

The assignment of comparing Google Scholar to EBSCO Academic Search Premier yielded similarities and differences, as might be expected. At first, I ran a search for cyberbully, resulting in nearly twenty times as many results in Google Scholar as in EBSCO. When I tried narrowing it down by searching for cyberbully AND effect, it actually seemed to provide less useful results for my purposes, and thus returned to my original query of cyberbully. An interesting difference between the two was that I found Google Scholar to return more results focused on reacting to cyberbullies, prevention of cyberbullying, and coping with it, whereas EBSCO's results tended more toward identifying cyberbullies and studying the cyberbullies themselves. On the other hand, EBSCO returned more scholarly sources, while Google Scholar returned several newspaper articles. This can most likely be attributed to EBSCO's heavy preference for peer reviewed articles (EBSCO Support, 2014), but also due to the fact that EBSCO has access to materials that are simply unavailable to Google, such as items hidden in the Deep Web that are only accessible through subscriptions (as described in class on July 9, 2014). Consequently, a serious inconvenience of Scholar is its considerable lack of accessibility to the links it provides.There were three authors who showed up both in EBSCO Academic Search Premier and Google Scholar: Chibbaro, Schenk, and Franek. Chibbaro's article (2007) titled School Counselors and the Cyberbully: Interventions and Implications provides a decent overview and introduction to the topic of cyberbullying, including a definition of what it is, why it is an issue, and offers some possible ways to react and deal with the situation in schools. This ranked first in Scholar, but only thirteenth in the Academic Search Premier. While it fit the search criteria, EBSCO may have been somewhat more discerning, and deemed it somewhat less informative than other articles that provide more depth, and thus ranked it lower. Schenk had two articles on EBSCO and only one on Google. The article that showed up on Google (2012) was ranked third, but only eighth in EBSCO, while the other Schenk article on EBSCO (2013) was ranked third. While the subjects, titles, and abstracts have a comparatively similar number of hits for the word cyberbully, EBSCO's third ranked Schenk article (2013) was released over a year after the other article. Since EBSCO tends to favor more recent publications (EBSCO Support, 2014), as scholastic topics typically gain more information and knowledge with the passing of time, that probably accounts for the different rankings. The third and final author was Mark Franek, whose articles on Google (2004) and EBSCO (2005-2006) were not the same. His article on Google Scholar was published in the Christian Science Monitor in 2004 (ranked 10), while a different article, found in Educational Leadership (Dec '05/Jan '06), a publication specifically designed for and targeting educators was located on Academic Search Premier (ranked 20). While neither might be quite what one would consider authoritative, the one from Educational Leadership would be more likely to have been reviewed or edited by educators, counselors, or other types of people, especially if it is found on EBSCO, whereas the Christian Science Monitor has a higher likelihood of simply printing his piece, and it is not known as an unbiased publication. The fact that it is an article of one person stating his stance, as opposed to presenting a body of research also probably played a role in its relatively low ranking (of 20).

ReferencesChibbaro, J. S. School Counselors and the Cyberbully: Interventions and Implications.. Professional School Counseling, 11, 65-67.

Franek, M. Foiling Cyberbullies in the New Wild West. Educational Leadership, 63, 39-43.

Franek, M. (2004, May 10). Rise of the Cyberbully Demands New Rules. The Christian Science Monitor.

How is relevance ranking determined in EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS)?. (2014, April 1).. Retrieved July 16, 2014, from http://support.ebsco.com/knowledge_base/detail.php?topic=999&id=3971&page=1

Schenk, A. M., & Fremouw, W. J. Prevalence, Psychological Impact, and Coping of Cyberbully Victims Among College Students. Journal of School Violence, 11, 21-37. Retrieved July 16, 2014, from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15388220.2011.630310#.U8bKIvldU-k

Schenk, A. M., Fremouw, W. J., & Keelan, C. M. Characteristics of college cyberbullies. Computers in Human Behavior, 29, 2320-2327.