Using PoP: Queries preferences

Publish or Perish tutorial

Note: This tutorial was originally written for Publish or Perish v4 and all screenshots come from this version. However, the information as such is also applicable for later versions of Publish or Perish.

Note: This dialog box was restricted from Publish or Perish 6.36 to prevent abuse. Communication with this data source uses preset defaults for most settings from this release onward.

This dialog box appears when you choose the Tools > Preferences command from the Publish or Perish main menu. Unless you know what you are doing, don’t change any of these preferences. The default settings are chosen to ensure the best result for nearly all users.

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The query preferences allow you to edit a number of settings that affect how Publish or Perish handles queries. This dialog box contains the following fields and options.

General

  • Keep cached results for: Enter the number of days to keep the query results from queries. The longer this period, the fewer accesses are required to satisfy repeated queries. Any updates in the query results only become visible after the cache period has expired, so you don't want to make this period too long.
  • Clear the cache: Click this button to clear the entire results cache. This forces subsequent queries to access Google Scholar directly, which might be useful after a (suspected) update on Google Scholar, or if you have reason to believe that the cached results are somehow invalid.
  • User-Agent string: 99.99% of the PoP users do not need to know what this means and there is no need to put anything in this box. If you think you do need to know more, have a look at the help file.

Query aging

This box contains options that determine how Publish or Perish ages previously executed queries. The aging of queries only applies to queries that reside in the Recent queries, Older queries, or Trash folders. Queries that reside in other folders of the Multi-query center are not affected by the aging policies.

Request rate limiter

This box contains options that determine how Publish or Perish limits the rate at which your requests are send to Google Scholar. If you sent too many requests to Google Scholar or if the requests follow each other too quickly, Google Scholar may block further requests. The request rate limiter options help you to keep the number of requests sent to Google Scholar down to acceptable levels.

Respond to CAPTCHAs

Check this box to display a CAPTCHA dialog box when Google Scholar requests verification of your human status. If you solve the CAPTCHA correctly, then Google Scholar allows further queries. We recommend that you leave this option checked.

Allow cookies in Internet Explorer settings

For the CAPTCHA handling to be functional, you must allow first-party cookies in your Internet Explorer settings, or at least session cookies. You can set the Internet Explorer cookies preferences by choosing the Tools > Internet Options command from the main menu in Publish or Perish, then clicking on the Privacy tab in the Internet Properties dialog box that appears.

Support Publish or Perish

The development of the Publish or Perish software is a volunteering effort that has been ongoing since 2006. Download and use of Publish or Perish is and will remain free (gratis), but 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.

Feedback

PS: If you are using Publish or Perish on a regular basis, please take 5 minutes to provide me with some feedback.