Publish or Perish version 6

Introduces Publish or Perish release 6 and its new data sources

Anne-Wil Harzing - Wed 15 Nov 2017 14:54 (updated Thu 2 Jun 2022 14:30)

Update: We released the next version, Publish or Perish version 7 in September 2019, and Publish or Perish version 8 in November 2021.

The first lines of code for the Publish or Perish software were written in October 2006. Today, just over 11 years later, we are proud to introduce its latest incarnation, prosaically called Version 6 or PoP6. You can download it here.

A year ago, we introduced Publish or Perish version 5 with a completely redesigned user interface. You can find a bit of history of the program's development here. Although some long-standing users were a bit confused, the vast majority appreciated the easy access to recent and older queries and the more flexible search interface.

Version 6 incorporates six data sources

The major change for Publish or Perish version 6 is the substantial expansion of data sources. Publish or Perish now offers the following data sources (in alphabetical order).

Crossref: launched in early 2000 as a cooperative effort among publishers, it recently started making citation data available under the Initiative for Open Citations. Its coverage is still limited, but expanding. It currently has a poor author search syntax, but is perfect for ISSN search and key words searches.
Google Scholar (GS): PoP's only data source until PoP 5 was launched in October 2016 and still many users' favourite because of its comprehensive coverage. However, searches can be slow and it does have its flaws, so do explore the alternative data sources.
Google Scholar Profile (GSP): Excellent alternative to Google Scholar for those authors who have a profile. Combines comprehensive coverage with easy author disambiguation.
Microsoft Academic (MA): Much improved reincarnation of the flawed MA Search. For many academics it will provide a coverage that is close to Google Scholar coverage, but it has quicker searches and cleaner results.
Scopus: Curated, subscription-based, data-base provided by Elsevier. High level of accuracy, but - especially in Engineering, the Social Sciences and Humanities - lower coverage than Google Scholar or Microsoft Academic.
Web of Science: Curated, subscription-based, data-base provided by Clarivate. High level of accuracy, but - especially in Engineering, the Social Sciences and Humanities - lower coverage than Google Scholar or Microsoft Academic.

The other major new feature in Publish or Perish version 6 is the introduction of a full query report. To simplify record keeping of data queries, Publish or Perish can generate a comprehensive query report in a single command. The full query report contains all of the following:

The search terms and other query parameters
Data retrieval information: data source, date of query and of actual data, status of the query request
The metrics that Publish or Perish calculated on the results
A formatted list of results, in the order that is shown in the Results list

When you generate a full query report as a Save as... command it will be written as formatted text in Rich Text Format (RTF), which can be read by most word processors including Microsoft Word, LibreOffice Writer, SoftMaker TextMaker, and many others.

When you generate a full query report as a Copy [to Clipboard] command it will be copied to the Windows clipboard as both Rich Text Format (RTF) and as plain text (in Unicode encoding). This makes it suitable for pasting into word processors (which will see and use the RTF copy, keeping all formatting intact) as well as into plain text editors and other text-based tools (which will see the structured, but unformatted plain text copy).

Which data source to use?

This quick introduction provides an overview of the six data sources you can search through Publish or Perish. For detail on Author searches, Journal searches, General/keyword searches or Affiliation searches please refer to the relevant pages.

Please note: Every data source has its own unique syntax that – oftentimes – is not fully documented. On the Author searches, Journal searches, General/keyword searches or Affiliation searches pages you will find the most important tips and problems, but to get the best out of the different data sources you need to be prepared to experiment with different search strategies. If you find that some things are not working as you expect, please share your findings by sending me an email, so that, collectively, we can improve these instructions.

If you really want to make the most of the many possible ways in which Publish or Perish can be used, refer to the Publish or Perish tutorial for dozens of use cases, ranging from job interviews to promotion applications and literature reviews to bibliometric research or check the blog posts with Publish or Perish tips.

Data source	Advantages	Disadvantages
Crossref	No need for a subscription key Usually provides cleaner and smaller number of irrelevant results than Google Scholar and Microsoft Academic Very good data source for “any of the words” key word searches and journal searches by ISSN Search speed fast to medium	Typically reports fewer citations than Google Scholar and Microsoft Academic, because it includes fewer journals in some fields and has very limited coverage of books, book chapters and conference papers Author search is problematic as it is very difficult to disambiguate authors Year of publication is year of online-first, not year of print publication
Google Scholar (GS)	No need for a subscription key "Forgiving" search syntax Usually provides the largest number of publications and citations Search speed medium for single search with limited number of results	Usually provides a larger number of irrelevant results than other data sources Author disambiguation more difficult than GSP, MA and WoS Because of necessary search rate limitation, speed slows down considerably when doing multiple searches in quick succession or running searches with many results Year of publication is sometimes - but not always - year of online first, not year of print publication
Google Scholar Profile (GSP)	No need for a subscription key Most "forgiving" search syntax Very quick search, 1-3 seconds for most authors Manual curation by the academic usually means cleaner results than GS	Only available if academic in question has set up a profile Can contain "dirty data" if academic has not curated their profile Can be consciously manipulated by unscrupulous academics by adding papers not written by the academic themselves
Microsoft Academic (MA)	Access courtesy of Microsoft Academic. You no longer need a subscription key Usually provides a smaller number of irrelevant results than GS Search speed very fast for searches with less than 200 results, but fast even for repeated searches and searches with many results Usually provides cleaner results than GSP as not all user curate their GSP Seems to provide best automated author disambiguation	More restrictive search syntax Does not allow NOT searches Year of publication is usually year of online first, not year of print publication
Scopus	Provides cleaner and smaller number of irrelevant results than Google Scholar and Microsoft Academic Typically reports more citations than Web of Science Very good data source for key word searches and journal searches by ISSN	Full results require (non-free) subscription Search speed slow, but still acceptable Typically reports fewer citations than Google Scholar and Microsoft Academic, because it includes fewer journals in some fields and has a limited coverage of books, book chapters and conference papers
Web of Science	Provides cleaner and smaller number of irrelevant results than Google Scholar and Microsoft Academic Search speed very fast for nearly any kind of searches Allows wildcards (e.g. global*) for easier searches	Requires (non-free) subscription Typically reports fewer citations than all other sources because it includes fewer journals in many fields (esp. Social Sciences and Humanities) and has a very limited coverage of books, book chapters and conference papers. Typically is last data source to include recent publications as it doesn’t include “in press” papers.

What data sources can PoP search in?

Support Publish or Perish

While the development of the Publish or Perish software is a volunteering effort and download and use of Publish or Perish is and will remain free (gratis), your support toward the costs of hosting, bandwidth, and software development are appreciated. Your support helps further development of Publish or Perish for new data sources and additional features.

Please do not feel obliged to support us financially; we developed Publish or Perish to help academics across the world obtain better (and free) access to academic data sources and will remain to do so. Everyone can access the free online help resources for the program and you can support us simply by sending us an email explaining why the software is useful to you.

However, if you do want to support us, further details can be found here.

Anne-Wil Harzing is Emerita Professor of International Management at Middlesex University, London. She is a Fellow of the Academy of International Business, a select group of distinguished AIB members who are recognized for their outstanding contributions to the scholarly development of the field of international business. In addition to her academic duties, she also maintains the Journal Quality List and is the driving force behind the popular Publish or Perish software program.

Anne-Wil Harzing's profile and contact details >>