Google Scholar
Google Scholar Tutorial Video
General Information
Google Scholar is a search engine which indexes scholarly literature in many disciplines.
For many scholarly journals, there are links which lead directly to the article itself.
Includes cited references like the Web of Science database.
Advanced search allows discipline, author, date, and other pertinent searches.
Google Scholar
- Scholarly focus.
- Academic Publishers.
- Professional Papers and Conference Proceedings.
- Online journals and reprinted articles.
- Use the Advanced Search for better searching.
Pros and Cons
Pros of Using Google Scholar
- Relevancy.
- Web-based materials not in other databases.
- Searches a broad cross-section of subjects and disciplines.
- "Cited by" links to works that cite a particular book or article.
- Strong in the Sciences (Engineering, Chemistry, Biology, etc.).
- Google Scholar is constantly being improved.
Cons of Using Google Scholar
- Frequency of updates.
- Gaps in coverage.
- Incomplete Citations (often by the omission of years, issue numbers or journal titles).
- No saved searches as found with many library databases.
- Bias toward older literature - much of what is not full text.
- Exporting citations: Only one at a time.