Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

GPLv2 VS Google Scholar

Compare GPLv2 VS Google Scholar and see what are their differences

GPLv2 logo GPLv2

Created for the GNU project, the GNU General Public License version 2 is the most popular free software license.

Google Scholar logo Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text of scholarly...
  • GPLv2 Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-03
  • Google Scholar Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-02-07

GPLv2 features and specs

  • Copyleft
    GPLv2 ensures that any derivative work is also distributed under the same license terms. This promotes software freedom by requiring modifications to be open-sourced.
  • Community Collaboration
    It fosters a collaborative environment where developers can contribute improvements back to the original project, enhancing innovation and sharing.
  • User Freedom
    The license guarantees end-users the freedom to use, study, modify, and distribute software, which empowers users and supports ethical software practices.

Possible disadvantages of GPLv2

  • Incompatibility with Non-GPL Licenses
    GPLv2's strict copyleft terms can lead to incompatibility with other open-source licenses, such as the Apache License, making it harder to combine code with differently licensed projects.
  • Perceived Legal Complexity
    Some developers and organizations perceive the legal terms as complex and daunting, which can deter use by those unfamiliar with open-source licensing.
  • Lack of Patent Protections
    Unlike GPLv3, GPLv2 does not include explicit patent license protections, potentially exposing users and developers to patent-related legal risks.

Google Scholar features and specs

  • Accessibility
    Google Scholar is freely accessible to anyone with an internet connection, removing barriers to accessing academic research.
  • Wide Range of Sources
    It indexes scholarly articles from a broad range of disciplines and sources, including academic publishers, universities, and other scholarly websites.
  • Citation Tracking
    Google Scholar provides citation information, allowing users to see how often a paper has been cited and to track the influence of research over time.
  • Ease of Use
    The interface is user-friendly and familiar to anyone who has used Google, making it easy to search for and find scholarly papers.
  • Advanced Search Options
    Google Scholar offers advanced search capabilities, including the ability to search by author, date range, and specific journals.

Possible disadvantages of Google Scholar

  • Quality Control
    The inclusion criteria for sources indexed are not transparent, leading to variability in the quality of the materials available.
  • Coverage
    Although extensive, Google Scholar's coverage is not comprehensive, and some important journals and articles might be missing.
  • Duplicate Entries
    There can be multiple entries for the same document, making it difficult to determine the most authoritative version.
  • Limited Full-Text Availability
    Many articles listed in Google Scholar are behind paywalls, meaning full access often requires a subscription or purchase.
  • Inconsistent Metadata
    The metadata (author names, publication dates, etc.) can sometimes be inaccurate or incomplete, affecting search results and citation tracking.

Analysis of Google Scholar

Overall verdict

  • Overall, Google Scholar is considered a good resource for academic research. It is user-friendly, provides comprehensive search results, and includes useful features such as citation analysis and linking to full-text articles when available. However, it may not have access to all subscription-only content available through university libraries or specialized databases.

Why this product is good

  • Google Scholar is a valuable tool because it provides free access to a vast range of scholarly articles, theses, books, conference papers, and patents across various disciplines. It indexes content from academic publishers, research institutions, and other scholarly websites, making it a convenient resource for researchers, students, and academics. Its citation tracking feature is particularly useful for understanding the impact and relevance of specific works.

Recommended for

  • Students looking for scholarly articles for their assignments.
  • Researchers who want to track citations and research trends.
  • Academics needing access to a wide range of publications.
  • Anyone interested in finding reliable, peer-reviewed sources for information.

GPLv2 videos

Linus Torvalds says GPL v3 violates everything that GPLv2 stood for

Google Scholar videos

How to do a literature review using Google Scholar

More videos:

  • Tutorial - How To Use Google Scholar | Writing A Literature Review
  • Tutorial - How to use Google Scholar to find journal articles | Essay Tips

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to GPLv2 and Google Scholar)
Education
8 8%
92% 92
Digital Whiteboard
0 0%
100% 100
Productivity
100 100%
0% 0
Research Tools
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using GPLv2 and Google Scholar. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Google Scholar seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 1002 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

GPLv2 mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of GPLv2 yet. Tracking of GPLv2 recommendations started around Mar 2021.

Google Scholar mentions (1002)

  • ChatGPT Search
    > Has google completely stopped working for anyone else? Yes. However, I found that https://scholar.google.com still works perfectly well. It feels just as the old Google without all the crap they've been adding in the last years. - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
  • Is Psychology Going to Cincinnati?
    He links to a meta analysis* that says CBT does cure depression well enough and does so consistently for many decades without any declines in effectiveness. Later for some reason, he says no single mental illness was ever cured. It seems the main point of the article is to say that nothing except "nudges" ever worked in psychology - this is nonsense that he himself contradicts as I mentioned above. Just use... - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
  • Ask HN: Where do you subscribe to published journal topics?
    If you mean articles: No, it would be unfeasible. According to Science [https://www.science.org/content/article/scienceadviser-scientists-are-publishing-too-many-papers-and-s-bad-science] there are about 2.82 million articles coming out every year. That's 5.3 papers every minute, 24/7. If you mean a list of titles, your best bet would probably be something like https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/ [PMC, life... - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • Show HN: Sort Google scholar by citations from your web browser
    A few may know, that google scholar(https://scholar.google.com/) does not offer a feature for arranging the search results based on the number of citations. Several years ago, one developer published a Python code (https://github.com/WittmannF/sort-google-scholar) to handle this. I had been inspired by his work, but I wanted to show the list of... - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Ask HN: Why is Google search unusable lately?
    To that point, https://scholar.google.com/ is still useful. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing GPLv2 and Google Scholar, you can also consider the following products

MIT License - A license from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

PubMed.gov - PubMed comprises more than 29 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites.

Simplified BSD License - Also known as the "2-clause" BSD license, this is a simplified version of an open source license created at the University of California Berkley.

SCI-HUB - It provides mass and public access to tens of millions of research papers

AGPL - GNU Affero General Public License. Strong license for applications designed to guarentee user freedoms to access, modify, and redistribute server-side code.

ResearchGate - Access scientific knowledge, and make your research visible