The Publish or Perish Tutorial: 80 easy tips to get the best out of the Publish or Perish software

The Publish or Perish Tutorial in book format

Through my technical support for Publish or Perish over the last 10 years and the Publish or Perish Survey, I have come to realise that there is room for improvement in the way most PoP users use the program. Obviously, there are many help resources: a help file, an FAQ and the Publish or Perish book. However, most users don’t seem to consult those. Therefore I created an even easier way to get familiar with the PoP software.

Tutorial: 80 PoP tips (PDF edition)

This tutorial of 80 tips introduces the user to the main functions of Publish or Perish in short and easy chunks. Most sections can be read independently, but the collection is structured in a logical order, so you can work through it doing one section at a time.

PoP Tutorial Book© 2016 Anne-Wil Harzing. Published by Tarma Software Research Ltd, London, United Kingdom, 178 pp. ISBN 978-0-9808485-9-5 (pdf)

Note: PoP is under continuous development. This tutorial is best suited for Publish or Perish version 4; screenshots are from this version, but 95% of its content is applicable to later versions of the software as well.

£2.99 - Buy now

 

Tutorial: 80 PoP tips (paperback edition)

This tutorial of 80 tips introduces the user to the main functions of Publish or Perish in short and easy chunks. Most sections can be read independently, but the collection is structured in a logical order, so you can work through it doing one section at a time. 

PoP Tutorial Book

© 2016 Anne-Wil Harzing. Published by Tarma Software Research Ltd, London, United Kingdom, 180 pp. ISBN 978-0-9808485-8-8 (paperback B&W)

B&W pbk, $7.99 Amazon US, £6.99 Amazon UK, also available on other national Amazon stores.

Kindle colour, $3.49, Amazon US, £2.99 Amazon UK, also available on other national Amazon stores.

Note: PoP is under continuous development. This tutorial is best suited for Publish or Perish version 4; screenshots are from this version, but 95% of its content is applicable to later versions of the software as well.

Contents of the book

Finding out your publications, citations and h-index

We will start out with the most common usage scenario: academics searching for their own name, usually to find their publications, citations and h-index. In doing so we also discuss in detail how to disambiguate author names.

Journal search, General search, and Multi-query center

In addition to an author search, Publish or Perish also provides the option to do a journal search. For more demanding users, the general search function opens up a host of additional search options. The multi-query center stores all of your queries and allows for sophisticated query management.

From query export to promotion, from job interview to literature review, and much more...

Amongst many other things, you will learn about a multitude of metrics, how to manage, import and export your queries, how to use PoP to make your case for tenure or promotion, how to decide which journals to submit to, how to prepare for a job interview, how to do a literature review, and even how to do bibliometric research.

Google Scholar limitations

Although Google Scholar typically provides better coverage than Scopus or the Web of Science, it is not a bibliometric database. Instead it relies on parsing scholarly literature on the Web. Therefore, this tutorial also covers the main limitations of Google Scholar, including lack of discipline filtering, truncation of author and journal names, and the occasional wrong parsing of years, master records, author names.

Detailed contents

PoP tip 1: Author search (1): Three easy steps

PoP tip 2: Author search (2): Do include the quotes (“ ”)

PoP tip 3: Author search (3): Use selective exclusion

PoP tip 4: Author search (4): Use multiple initials

PoP tip 5: Author search (5): Exclude homonyms

PoP tip 6: Author search (6): Use full given name

PoP tip 7: Author search (7): Use year restrictions

PoP tip 8: Author search (8): Use multiple names

PoP tip 9: Author search (9): Exclude co-authors

PoP tip 10: Author search (10): Use research fields

PoP tip 11: Author search (11): Use affiliation

PoP tip 12: Journal search (1): Basic Search

PoP tip 13: Journal search (2): Excluding namesakes by journal name or keywords

PoP tip 14: Journal search (3): Excluding journal namesakes by ISSN

PoP tip 15: Journal search (4): Excluding by ISSN: a quick-and-dirty strategy

PoP tip 16: Journal search (5): Searching by ISSN

PoP tip 17: Journal search (6): Year restrictions

PoP tip 18: Journal search (7): Searching chapters in an edited volume

PoP tip 19: General citation search (1): Basic Search

PoP tip 20: General citation search (2): Finding a specific paper

PoP tip 21: General citation search (3): Finding a specific academic

PoP tip 22: General citation search (4): Advanced Author Queries

PoP tip 23: General citation search (5): What has a journal published on a topic?

PoP tip 24: General citation search (6): Institutional searches

PoP tip 25: Multi-query center (1): Introduction

PoP tip 26: Multi-query center (2): Tree view

PoP tip 27: Multi-query center (3): List view

PoP tip 28: Multi-query center (4): Exporting

PoP tip 29: Multi-query center (5): Importing (1): Re-Importing exported data

PoP tip 30: Multi-query center (6): Importing (2): Importing ISI data

PoP tip 31: Multi-query center (7): Importing (3): Importing Scopus data

PoP tip 32: Multi-query center (8): Exporting and Importing Archives

PoP tip 33: Multi-query center (9): Longitudinal comparisons

PoP tip 34: Multi-query center (10): Aggregating queries

PoP tip 35: Accuracy: PoP does NOT give results different from Google Scholar

PoP tip 36: Improve author search accuracy (1): Check if the years make sense

PoP tip 37: Improve author search accuracy (2): Merge duplicate citations

PoP tip 38: Improve author search accuracy (3): Selective merging

PoP tip 39: What the heck are all these metrics (1)? Simple metrics

PoP tip 40: What the heck are all these metrics (2)? H and G index 

PoP tip 41: What the heck are all these metrics (3)? hI,norm and hI,annual

PoP tip 42: What the heck are all these metrics (4)? Even more h-indices

PoP tip 43: Present your case (1): Find the pearls in your record

PoP tip 44: Present your case (2): Create your own reference group

PoP tip 45: Present your case (3): Pick your metrics wisely

PoP tip 46: Present your case (4): Compare your best papers to the journal average

PoP tip 47: Present your case (5): Present comprehensive cites for edited volumes

PoP tip 48: Present your case (6): Argue for quality by association

PoP tip 49: Evaluating other academics (1): Reviewers, examiners, referees

PoP tip 50: Evaluating other academics (2): Meeting an academic visitor

PoP tip 51: Evaluating other academics (3): Writing laudations or obituaries

PoP tip 52: Evaluating other academics (4): Publication awards

PoP tip 53: Evaluating other academics (5): Preparing for a job interview

PoP tip 54: Tips for Deans and other administrators

PoP tip 55: Where to submit your paper? (1): Which journals publish on your topic

PoP tip 56: Where to submit your paper? (2): Comparing journals by impact

PoP tip 57: Where to submit your paper? (3): Have you missed any papers?

PoP tip 58: How to conduct a literature review search?

PoP tip 59: Identifying key authors, journals, and publications in a field

PoP tip 60: Development of the literature over time

PoP tip 61: Bibliometric research with Google Scholar

PoP tip 62: Doing bibliometric research for authors

PoP tip 63: Doing bibliometric research for journals: co-authorship patterns

PoP tip 64: Google Scholar: strengths and weaknesses

PoP tip 65: Google Scholar limitations (1): Truncating author and journal names

PoP tip 66: Google Scholar limitations (2): The wrong master record

PoP tip 67: Google Scholar limitations (3): Wrong author names

PoP tip 68: Google Scholar limitations (4): Online listing as year of publication

PoP tip 69: Google Scholar limitations (5): Stray citations

PoP tip 70: Google Scholar limitations (6): All cites attributed to the last edition

PoP tip 71: Google Scholar limitations (7): Removal of subject areas

PoP tip 72: Google Scholar limitations (8): Publication years, not citation years

PoP tip 73: Google Scholar limitations (9): Slow searches

PoP tip 74: Google Scholar limitations (10): CAPTCHAS

PoP tip 75: Using PoP (1): The buttons

PoP tip 76: Using PoP (2): Resizing and sorting columns

PoP tip 77: Using PoP (3): Context menu

PoP tip 78: Using PoP (4): Top and left-hand menu

PoP tip 79: Setting preferences: General preferences

PoP tip 80: Setting preferences: Query preferences

Support Publish or Perish

Product name Unit price Quantity
PoP donation (small) GBP 1.00
PoP donation (medium) GBP 10.00
PoP donation (large) GBP 50.00
PoP donation (corporate) GBP 500.00
Publish or Perish guide (2010) GBP 3.49
Publish or Perish tutorial (2016) GBP 2.99

Note: all prices are in Pounds Sterling (GBP). VAT does not apply.