Sizing Up "Scholarship"

It seems that Google Scholar, which I've previously discussed, decides whether a particular document is "scholarly" based on the document's formatting. The best way to get your article to appear in Google Scholar searches is to make sure it:

• is an HTML or searchable PDF file
• is posted on a web site
• can be directly accessed (no signing in, accepting disclaimers, or wading through advertisements)
• is no larger than 5 MB in size
• has a title (in a large font) on the first page
• lists author(s) on a separate line right below the title
• has a clearly-labeled bibliography section at the end

That's pretty much it. If you can type a few lines into any word-processing app that can save files in HTML or PDF format, and you have the ability to create a basic web site, Google considers you a "scholar." Yikes.