an oddity of Google Scholar

[Karen Kohn]

I just had a strange experience with Google Scholar.  I'm trying to verify a citation for an article by E.M. Foster called "An illustration of the use of instrumental variables..."  I actually have the whole citation in front of me, but it's unverified (comes from the references section of a published article, and those can often contain mistakes).  So I searched Google Scholar (see the results here:
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=author%3Afoster+AND+%22illustration+of+the+use%22&btnG=Search) and it came up right away... BUT there is noplace I can click to see the full citation,  I can tell from the hits page that they found this cite in other people's bibliographies and have also not verified it, but why can't they give me the whole thing?  It kind of looks like an oversight to me.  I have mixed feelings about the fact that Google Scholar includes cites they found cited by other people, when these have not been verified in databases or the journal homepage (on one hand it increases what is available on Google Scholar, but I'd say the chances of a mistake in the references section of an article are very high!), but if they are going to include them why not include them in full?

Karen Kohn, Assistant Librarian
Polisher Research Institute (LIBID: PAUPHA)
Abramson Center for Jewish Life
(Formerly Philadelphia Geriatric Center)
1425 Horsham Road
North Wales, PA  19454-1320
215-371-1334
215-371-3015 (fax)
www.abramsoncenter.org/PRI