An increasing number of fraudulent impact factors are designed to assist weak or predatory journals. If you are unsure of the validity of an impact factor, please contact your librarian for help.
Google Scholar tracks the number of times an article in Scholar is cited in other Scholar sources. However, Scholar does not distinguish between credible sources and predatory or poor quality articles. Scholar citation counts often include duplicates. citation multiple times if it finds an article in multiple places. For example, Researcher A publishes a paper citing Researcher B in a peer-reviewed journal. Scholar may find (and count) Research B's paper
Google Scholar will show that Researcher B's article was cited 4 times when in reality, it was cited in one paper that appeared 4 times in Scholar.
An unethical scholar can improve the chances of being cited
So, generally speaking, Google Scholar should not be the sole source for determining the impact of a publication. It may or may not be an accurate reflection of a scholar's real influence. See more information on this practice in the article "Scholar Accused of Bogus Boost to Google Rating" cited below.
