Research Strategies: Using Google Scholar

Using Google Scholar

Google Scholar [scholar.google.com] is different from Google. Google searches public web content - if your instructor says not to use Google, they probably mean they don't want you to use content from the public web. Google Scholar, however, searches journal and conference papers, theses and dissertations, academic books, pre-prints, abstracts, technical reports and other scholarly literature.

Is Google Scholar right for my research?

Google Scholar is useful for:

• locating more information on partial citations. For example, Google Scholar can often find an article with just the title, and will provide the full citation and access to full text options once you have set up Google Scholar.
• discovering keywords that define your topic.
• helping a beginning researcher identify journal titles and authors connected with subjects of interest.
• finding "gray literature" like conference proceedings. It includes many articles that wouldn't get included in other indexing services.
• highlighting highly cited works on the topic.

Google Scholar cannot:

• search with the accuracy of Library databases.
• sort/search by disciplinary field.
• browse by title.

Searching in Google Scholar is imprecise when compared with discipline-specific databases. If your research requires very comprehensive searching, or if you are not satisfied with Google Scholar's results, use individual research databases.

Using Google Scholar

• Configure
• Finding Full Text
• Using "Cited By"
• Search Limits & Advanced Search
• Other Useful Features

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/ 

On-Campus? Google Scholar will automatically display links for access to the full text of search results.

Off Campus? Set Scholar Settings (From scholar.google.com , click on the Menu icon in the upper left corner and select "Settings") to configure Google Scholar to access UConn resources and enable exporting of citations to RefWorks.

If you do not see the word Settings, look for the cog icon. 

Select Library Links from the Scholar Settings menu. ​

• Below the "Show library access links" 
  • enter Salem State in search box and check the box next to  "SSU -FullText"
  • check the box next to  "Open WorldCat - Library Search"

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Bibliography Managers (Optional)

To show links to import citations into selected bibliography managers:

From the Scholar Settings page, scroll down the page to Bibliography Manager.

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• Using Google Scholar

• Configure Google Scholar

  Access UConn materials from Google Scholar. Check off UConn-UConn Full Text and Save