%0 Journal Article %T Comparing Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar from an Environmental Sciences perspective %A Leslie S. Adriaanse %A Chris Rensleigh %J South African Journal of Libraries and Information Science %D 2011 %I Stellenbosch University %R 10.7553/77-2-58 %X This paper presents a macro- and micro-level comparison of the citation resources Web of Science (WOS), Scopus and Google Scholar (GS) for the environmental sciences scholarly journals in South Africa during 2004-2008. The macro-level measuring instruments consisted of 26 evaluation criteria with the following broad categories: content, access, services, interface, searching, search results, cost, citation and analytical tools, and linking abilities. The micro-level measuring instrument¡¯s evaluation criteria represented the data fields of the journal records to establish comprehensivity. The macro-level evaluation results indicated that Scopus surpassed both WOS and GS whereas the micro-level evaluation results indicated that WOS surpassed both Scopus and GS. Based on the macro- and micro-level evaluation results the study was able to establish that GS is not yet a substitute but rather a supplementary citation resource for the fee-based WOS and/or Scopus for the South African international accredited scholarly environmental sciences journals during the period 2004-2008. %K Web of Science %K Scopus %K Google Scholar %K citation resources %K citation resource comparison %U http://sajlis.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/58