Google Scholar (GS) is a free academic search engine often likened to the academic version of Google.
It searches repositories from publishers, universities, and scholarly websites, which form a smaller subset compared to Google’s comprehensive web index. Results from GS mostly consist of reliable scholarly sources, automatically gathered.
However, Google Scholar is less selective about what it includes in search results compared to curated, subscription-based academic databases such as Scopus and Web of Science.
Therefore, it’s essential to assess the credibility of resources found through Google Scholar before relying on them for academic purposes.
Why is Google Scholar the better search engine for academic papers compared to Google?
There are several key differences that make Google Scholar useful for academic research:
- Citation Formats: Google Scholar allows users to copy formatted citations in various styles such as MLA and APA, which simplifies the process of citing sources correctly.
- Bibliographic Data Export: It enables users to export bibliographic data in formats like BibTeX and RIS, facilitating integration with reference management software.
- Citation Tracking: Users can explore other works that have cited a particular paper, providing valuable insights into its impact and relevance.
- Full Text Access: It helps users easily locate full-text versions of articles, though many are not freely accessible. Google Scholar attempts to locate copies of restricted articles in public repositories.
- Institutional Access: Academic and research institutions can set up library connections, allowing users to access articles available through their institution, enhancing accessibility to subscribed content.
These features collectively make Google Scholar a preferred tool for academic and scholarly research, offering efficient ways to discover and manage scholarly literature.
The results page of Google Scholar search
The Google Scholar search results page varies significantly from the regular Google results page. It’s important to understand the distinct information presented on this page. Let’s examine the results for the search term “machine learning.”
![](https://mimlearnovate.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-1024x516.png)
In a Google Scholar search results entry, the first two lines display core bibliographic details:
- The first line presents the title of the document, such as an article, book, chapter, or report.
- The second line includes bibliographic information in sequence: the author(s), the journal or book title where it is published, the publication year, and the publisher.
Clicking on the title link directs you to the publisher’s page, where you can access additional information about the document. This typically includes the abstract and options to download the PDF.
Options for quick full text access
![](https://mimlearnovate.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-1-1024x171.png)
To the far right of the entry, there are direct options for accessing the full text of the document. For instance, Google may provide links to a publicly available PDF hosted at sites like umich.edu. It’s important to note that this version of the article may not necessarily be the final published version in the journal.
“Cited by” count along with more useful links
![](https://mimlearnovate.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-2-1024x171.png)
Below the text snippet or abstract, you’ll find several useful links:
- Cited by: This link shows other articles that have cited the document. It’s valuable for tracking recent research referencing the article and enhances its credibility. Note that there might be a publication lag, so newer citations may not immediately appear.
- Versions: Clicking this link displays other versions of the article or databases where it may be available, some offering free access.
- Quotation mark icon: This icon provides a popup with commonly used citation formats such as MLA, APA, Chicago, Harvard, and Vancouver, which can be copied and pasted. It also includes options to export citation data as BibTeX or RIS files compatible with major reference managers. It’s advisable to verify citation data directly from the source as Google Scholar data can sometimes be incomplete.
![Google scholar citation](https://mimlearnovate.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-3-1024x873.png)
Tips for searching Google Scholar
Google Scholar limits searches to 1,000 results per query, making it impractical to explore all results. To find relevant articles efficiently, consider these expert tips.
- Case Sensitivity: Google Scholar searches are not case sensitive. Searching for “Machine Learning” will yield the same results as “machine learning.”
- Use Keywords: Instead of full sentences, use keywords related to your topic. For example, for research on self-driving cars, use terms like self-driving cars, autonomous vehicles, or driverless cars. Google Scholar provides related query suggestions as you type. Here’s a strategy: compile a list of keywords such as self-driving cars, autonomous vehicles, or driverless cars. Google Scholar can help: as you type in the search bar, Scholar suggests related queries!
- Exact Phrase Search: Using quotation marks in your search phrase allows Google Scholar to find exact matches of that phrase in both the title and body text of documents. Without quotes, each word is treated separately. For example, searching “national parks” ensures the words appear together as a phrase, whereas without quotes, they may appear separately.
- Search by Year: Include the year in your search phrase to find articles published in a specific year. For example, “self-driving cars 2015” will show articles or books published in 2015.
- Use Sidebar Controls: Utilize the options in the left-hand panel to refine search results. You can adjust the publication years, include or exclude patents, and sort results by relevance or date.
- Boolean Operators: Use Boolean operators (must be capitalized) to refine your search:
- AND: Requires both words or phrases on either side to appear somewhere in the record.
- NOT: Excludes results that include the specified word or phrase.
- OR: Gives equal weight to results that match either word or phrase on either side.
These tips will help you save time and locate relevant articles more effectively on Google Scholar.
Example Queries | When to Use and What It Does |
---|---|
“alternative medicine” | Use for multiword concepts like “alternative medicine” to find exact phrase matches in titles and body text. |
“The wisdom of the hive: the social physiology of honey bee colonies” | Use when searching for a specific article by its exact title to ensure precise results. |
author: “Jane Goodall” | Use to search for articles written by a specific author, Jane Goodall. Variations like “J Goodall” or “Goodall” also work, but are less restrictive. |
“self-driving cars” AND “autonomous vehicles” | Use to narrow results to articles that specifically mention both “self-driving cars” and “autonomous vehicles”. |
dinosaur 2015 | Use to limit search results about dinosaurs to articles published specifically in the year 2015. |
Google Scholar’s advanced search interface
To enhance your search precision on Google Scholar, utilize the advanced search interface accessible through the hamburger menu in the top left corner. This option allows for more detailed control over your search parameters, helping to refine and focus your results effectively.
![Google Scholar's advanced search interface](https://mimlearnovate.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-4-1024x775.png)
To customize your search preferences and options on Google Scholar, navigate to the settings menu accessed through the hamburger icon at the top left of the page. Here’s a breakdown of the settings sections:
- Search Results:
- Collections to Search: Default includes articles and patents; you can adjust to focus on specific types like case law.
- Bibliography Manager: Export citation data using the “Bibliography manager” subsection.
- Languages: Specify languages for search results to include.
- Library Links: Integrate your institution’s subscriptions to access full-text articles directly.
- Scholar Button:
- This Chrome extension adds a dropdown search box to your toolbar for quick access to Google Scholar.
- Allows searching Scholar directly from any website and displays results based on selected text.
Using Google Scholar’s “my library” feature
Adjusting these settings provides additional customization to tailor your Google Scholar searches according to your specific needs and preferences.
When using Google Scholar while signed in, you gain access to the “My Library” feature, which offers basic tools for organizing and tracking articles you discover. Each search result includes a “save” button at the end of the bottom row of links. Clicking this button adds the article to your “My Library.”
To add structure, you can create and apply labels to the items in your library. These labels appear at the end of the article titles. For instance, an article might be labeled with “RNA” to categorize it accordingly.
![Using Google Scholar's "my library" feature](https://mimlearnovate.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-5-1024x212.png)
Within your Google Scholar library, you have the option to edit the metadata associated with titles. This is particularly useful because citation data in Google Scholar can often be inaccurate or incomplete.
The uses and limitations of Google Scholar
While the exact size of Google Scholar’s search index is not officially disclosed, unofficial estimates suggest it includes around 160 million items, with ongoing annual growth by several million. However, Google Scholar does not encompass all the diverse resources available through local library catalogs.
For instance, library databases may include podcasts, videos, articles, statistics, and special collections. As of now, Google Scholar primarily includes the following publication types:
- Journal articles: Includes articles from peer-reviewed journals, predatory journals, and pre-print archives.
- Court opinions.
- Book chapters: Chapters within books, sometimes available electronically.
- Book reviews: Reviews of books, though it may not always be clear from the search results.
- Patents: Searches patents if selected in the search settings.
- Books: Links to limited versions of books available on Google.
- Conference proceedings: Papers presented at conferences.
The information indexed in Google Scholar is not curated by professionals, which means the quality of metadata relies heavily on the sources from which Google Scholar gathers its data. This contrasts with scholarly databases like Scopus or Web of Science, where information is systematically collected and indexed by professional teams.
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