Here’s what I know: you can embed a set of tags containing citation metadata in your HTML to help Google Scholar to index your content. We’ve been doing it at ADS for quite a while. I’m not certain if the impetus came directly from Google, or, more likely, we got the idea from a CrossTech blog post by Tony Hammond that describes the technique.

For example, if you execute <span class="bash"> curl <span class="re5">-s</span> http:<span class="sy0">//</span>adsabs.harvard.edu<span class="sy0">/</span>abs<span class="sy0">/</span>1977NuPhB.126..298A <span class="sy0">|</span> <span class="kw2">grep</span> meta</span> you should see:

Since first implementation we’ve had some back-and-forth with Abhishek Jain at Google Scholar to ensure we’re making use of the full set of fields that Google Scholar looks for.*

Dan Chudnov, David Bucknum & Ed Summers at the LoC recently expressed interest in also embedding these tags. In the absence of official reference from the Google Scholar folks, I figured it would be a good thing to post here.

• citation_language
• citation_doi
• citation_abstract_html_url
• citation_title
• citation_authors
• citation_issn
• citation_date
• citation_journal_title
• citation_volume
• citation_firstpage
• citation_lastpage
• citation_publisher
• citation_issue
• citation_pdf_url
• citation_pmid
• citation_keywords (multiple instances OK)
• citation_conference
• citation_dissertation_name
• citation_dissertation_institution
• citation_patent_number
• citation_patent_country
• citation_technical_report_number
• citation_technical_report_institution

I had to cull this list via a visual scan of a long, forwarded e-mail thread. So, like I tried to insinuate above, it sure would be great if Google Scholar would publish an official reference to this schema somewhere.

• all instances of the term “we” should really be read as “my boss, Alberto”.