Google Scholar

I am currently on the job market, and thus critically considering my CV more than I would in a typical calendar year.  I am also watching the web for which schools are interviewing people, both via the Math Jobs wiki and via departments colloquium/seminar schedules (for the latter - simple checks of cv's will allow you to figure out short lists that aren't advertised on the wiki).  I am also checking my google scholar citations more that I normally would.

Today I noticed a resorting of my google scholar citations.  A number of my citations, on the order of 14, moved from being listed as citations from 2012 to being from 2013.  I don't know why.  I don't even know if this phenomena was restricted to 2012/13 or if all of the citation dates were resorted.  The result is that my citations, which had been seemed to peak in 2012, at about 42, and then be declining, now have a maximum value at about 28, but are near to being monotonic in time.

The difference between an increasing citation count by year and a decreasing one is significant in terms of the impression that it makes, both on potential employers and on candidates.  If you had asked me recently I would have said that my institute's current policy of prohibiting conference travel is the reason for the decrease in citation rate.  I would expect that employers could only wonder about the reason, but would certainly think of the slope in my citations as a negative.  Looking at my citation history now, I would say that my decrease in conference travel hasn't significantly effected my citation rate.  I also think potential employers or PnT committees would look at my citation graph and see nothing but positive things.

The temporarily negative slope in my citation count appears to have been an error, or at best a transient, of google's algorithm. Before today I would never have thought to check it though.  Its crazy to think about the difference the recent re-sorting made on my feelings (and maybe the feeling of others) about my career trajectory.   Forget google glass, I am scared of google scholar.